
rn^^L?^ CONGRESS 



ooooi3a4aQb 






o 0^ 



-S-. .' 



:.'- v^^ 






^// 


% ' 


s ^' 








^' 




.)^ 


: .<^^ 


^' 




-i 


,N^^^ 




'% 

"^^ 






4^ 



;-^^\^v!^>/°-^ 



.0- 






, '%. * N ^ ^ ^\V 



% 



■>v. ,.^'^' 






OO. 



o 0' 



.^^ "'^ 



J --f, 



.H 



.^^' 









.0' 



^'^- 



.•^ -u 



.^^" 



^^•% 



I'^. ^<-' 









LIFE 



Christopher Columbus. 



LIFE 



Christopher Columbus, 



DISCOVERER OF THE KEW WORLD. 



A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH, 



BY 

REV. A. g: knight, 

Of the Society ofjestts. 






New York : 
D. & J. SADLIER & CO., 31 BARCLAY STREET. 

Montreal; 275 Notre Dame Street. 

1877. 



LtE 



Copyright, 1877, 

by 

D. & J. SADLIER & CO. 



H. J. HEWITT, PRINTER AND STEREOTYPER, 27 ROSE ST., NEW YORK,. 



CONTENTS. 



Chapter I., 



Chapter II., 57 



Chapter III., 



Chapter IV., 145 



Chapter V., 



177 




Christopher Columbus. 



CHAPTER I, 



As long as Englishmen are sailors and mer- 
chants, and love enterprise and admire greatness 
of courage, they ought to hold in veneration the 
memory of Christopher Columbus. If anything 
could shake his popularity in England, it is to be 
feared that it might be the discovery that he was 
not only a daring seaman, who, despising all timid 
counsels and dark forebodings, gallantly sailed 
his little craft into a world of unknown waters, 
but moreover all the time a saint of Holy Church ; 
and that when he departed this life he was ripe 
for canonization, and that he even miraculously 
aids those who commend themselves to his power- 
ful intercession. This is at least a new idea for 
Englishmen, who have derived in nearly every 
case all their information about the character and 
work of the great admiral from the beautiful Life 
written by Washington Irving. The Protestant 
mind is impatient of the supernatural. Direct in- 
tervention of Heaven is conceivable in the case of 

9 



lo Christopher Columbus, 

the ancient Jews, because they lived so long ago, 
but a fixed providential mission, more especially 
in the shape of actual voyages preordained and 
even prophesied, is surely not quite what men 
need be prepared to admit for the days of a Tu- 
dor prince. Our countrymen are honorably dis- 
tinguished among the nations of modern Europe 
by their sense of religion. They are not ashamed 
to worship God. In London, Sunday is (often 
inconveniently so) a day of rest ; in Paris for 
many years past, and lately in Rome under the 
puerile Italian Government, it has ceased to be so. 
But as in human things, so in divine, an English- 
man is not demonstrative. His affections are deep 
rather than gushing. An English boy loves his 
sisters, but will not submit to be hugged and 
kissed before his schoolfellows. - Affection and 
piety are for private use.*^ Respectable tradition 
requires that good Christians should put in a 
weekly appearance at church, but gorgeous 
ceremonial and vows and visions are out of date. 
Accordingly the proposal to canonize a man like 
Columbus, whose name has its established place 
in secular history, is an insult, they think, to com- 
mon sense, and can only be regarded as one more 
indication of that aggressive spirit of the Roman 
Church which fills Mr. Gladstone's mind in the 
evening of life with generous alarm. 

A petition for the introduction of the cause 
has been numerously signed by Fathers of the 



Christopher Columbus. 1 1 

Vatican Council, wherein it is declared that the 
services of Christopher Columbus of Genoa in the 
propagation of the faith are unparalleled ; that his 
earthly recompense was calumny, insult, and per- 
sonal ill-treatment ; that the Floly See from the 
first befriended him ; and that Pius IX. is the only 
Pope who has set foot in America. It is added 
that Count Roselly de Lorgues has vindicated 
the memory of Christopher Columbus, and has 
manifested his supernal vocation and high virtues, 
especially his Catholic zeal, and that an ardent 
desire is felt that the public honors of the Church 
should be decreed by the Holy See to the Chris- 
tian hero. Cardinal Donnet is mentioned as 
having already sued for the introduction of the 
cause exccptionali ordiiie. It is stated that Europe, 
Asia, Africa, and America share the movement, 
that the lapse of time has interposed some tech- 
nical difficulties, but that these ought to be over- 
ridden in a case which has no precedent. 

An extract from a translation which appeared 
in the Tablet (August 19, 1876), of a letter ad- 
dressed to the Holy Father by Cardinal Donnet, 
Archbishop of Bordeaux, writing, as he in the 
course of the letter says, in his character of" Me- 
tropolitan of part of the Antilles and member of 
the Sacred Congregation of Rites," will perhaps 
best explain the drift of the document and the 
state of the question. He says : 

" Urged on by a secret inspiration from on high, 



12 Christopher Cohcmbus, 

and encouraged by the gracious sympathy of 
your Holiness, he (one of the most illustrious 
writers of France, the Count Roselly de Lorgues) 
gave us a new history of Christopher Columbus, 
in which he refuted all the calumnies heaped up 
by previous historians, and proved to demonstra- 
tion that the discovery of the New World was 
pre-eminentl}^ the work of God, and held up to 
our admiration Christopher Columbus as a provi- 
dential man, a messenger of Heaven prepared by 
especial graces for the accomplishment of his 
especial mission. 

** Thus both Europe and America have been 
moved by these revelations of history, which in- 
vest the celebrated navigator with a supernatural 
splendor. The facts and documents on which 
the impartial historian has based his account are 
so numerous and so conclusive that they have 
carried conviction to the mind even of writers 
separated indeed from Catholic unity, but guided 
by the love of truth alone. This conviction, 
Holy Father, has become in a short time so 
strong, that a large number of the Fathers of the 
Vatican Council have voluntarily affixed their 
signatures to the petition for the introduction of 
the cause. The solemn expression of their de- 
sires would have been presented to the Council 
itself had not the grave events which have agitat- 
ed Europe supervened to cause the suspension of 
the labors of that august assembly." 



Christopher Columbus. 13 

If the whole affair is strange and distasteful to 
Protestant Englishmen, it is downright aggravat- 
ing to French infidels. " On se prepare," says 
r Opinion Natiojialc, *' dans la ville de Rome, a 
proceder a une nouvelle beatification ; et Thomme 
qu'il agit de canoniser est — Christophe Colomb ! 
Nous protestons, de toutes nos forces, contre cet 
empietement de la cour de Rome. N'y a-t-il pas 
dans le monde assez de Benoit Labre et de Marie 
Alacoque, assez de visionnaires et d'extatiques, 
assez de martyrs de la Chine et du Japon, pour 
satisfaire aux besoins devots des ultramontains ? " 

The protestation is quite thrown away. The 
disapproval of the '' infidel press " is to Catholics 
a guarantee of the goodness of a cause second 
only to an autograph letter of the Holy Father. 
The Count Roselly de Lorgues is favored in 
both these ways. 

Is it, then, likely that Columbus will ever be St. 
Christopher, second of that name ? If it be not 
prediction and accomplishment, it is a coincidence 
worth noticing that the legend of the original St. 
Christopher symbolizes so beautifully the achieve 
ment of his namesake. Columbus, saint or not, 
was a giant, and he carried Christ across the 
water. There are, it must be admitted on all 
hands, abundant materials in the life of Columbus 
of the kind with which we are familiar in the lives 
of the saints — very much earnestness of purpose, 
deep religious convictions, superhuman labors, 



14 Christopher Columbus, 

incredible sufferings, lofty enthusiasm, grand 
achievements, and disgrace and dereliction. St. 
Francis Xavier left to die alone under the trees 
on a little deserted island ; Columbus passing 
away absolutely unnoticed amid the rejoicings of 
a royal marriage — the history of the Church is full 
of such examples, from the days of John the Bap- 
tist, who was put to death to please a dancing- 
girl. The greatest reward in God's gift is mar- 
tyrdom, and the next greatest is to meet with in- 
gratitude. 

Protestant historians like Washington Irving 
may well be excused if they fail to discern in the 
undertaking of Columbus the marks of a divine 
commission, when his Catholic contemporaries 
seemed so little conscious of any such hypothesis. 
No doubt there were good reasons for their reti- 
cence. It was natural for them to shrink from 
publishing their shame, and it was more pleasant 
to suppress, if possible in silence, the unworthy 
treatment of a noble soul, which rouses indigna- 
tion even now after four centuries. It is fair to 
consider also that contemporaries cannot see in 
one comprehensive glance, as their descendants 
can, the harmonious connection of the various in- 
cidents that go to form a great career. Writers 
of saints' lives understand that their main busi- 
ness is to dive beneath the surface and trace if 
possible the subtle action of divine grace; but 
essayists and historians are usually content to 



Christopher Columbus, 15 

deal with facts and the visible course of affairs, 
and the working of political motives and the ex- 
ternal manifestations of natural character, and 
seldom venture into the inner world of souls, or 
care to estimate the bearing of temporal action 
upon eternal destinies, and the true value before 
God and his angels of the words and deeds under 
consideration. If Washington Irving had been a 
Catholic, he might still have failed to detect the 
signs of sanctity in a career which certainly 
owed much of its splendid success to the power 
of human genius and indomitable will. Lofty 
enthusiasm may be natural impulse, not the in- 
spiration of heaven ; deep religious conviction 
may be the result of early education ; great suf- 
ferings and startling reverses are found even 
among the unregenerate. To Catholics a few 
proofs of genuine humility in the hour of glory, 
of meekness under persecution, of tender devotion 
to our Blessed Lady, of sensitive regard for pu- 
rity, would go further to make known a mes- 
senger of God and a child of grace than any 
number of great results or assemblage of brilliant 
qualities. 

Before the question of the "canonization" of 
Columbus can be fairly discussed, it is necessary 
to know the true nature of that sanctity to which 
the Church awards a place on her scroll of spiri- 
tual fame. It is by no means synonymous with 
mere moral goodness or uprightness of intention. 



1 6 Christopher Columbus, 

Sanctity certainly includes integrity, but it does 
not consist therein. The fact is that the word 
*' sanctity " is of very vague import to many 
minds, and is used even by Catholics in various 
gradations of meaning. It is a relative term 
depending for its special force upon the standard 
of comparison adopted. In popular esteem many 
a quiet and amiable father of a family passes 
for almost a saint when he is compared with 
garroters and drunken wife-beaters, and perhaps 
the same man is, in the e3^es of God who made 
him, a far greater offender than the poor felon 
condemned by human justice. He does no vio- 
lence to life and limb, but he sits by his fireside 
calmly writing ** infidel " articles, which turn 
men's hearts from the knowledge and the love 
of their Creator, and will continue to murder, 
not bodies, but more precious souls, long after 
the poor wretch who wrote them has stood be- 
fore the judgment-seat and been condemned for 
the sin of unbelief. In popular esteem a man who 
speaks much about duty and the Bible, and 
praises virtue and sets the example of much 
prayer, may pass for a saint, and yet Christ may 
condemn him for the sin of wilful heresy. God's 
valuation of sanctity is not formed upon popular 
opinion. When Catholics speak of " a saint," they 
may mean a man who never commits a mortal 
sin, who keeps his soul in the state of grace, and 
who is therefore *' holy " in a very true sense of 



CJmstopher Columbus. 17 

the word, being in the favor of God, possessing 
spiritual life, enjoying the companionship of good 
angels here on earth, and the promise, contingent 
only on his perseverance, of being eternally happy 
with them in heaven. Catholics, again, when 
they speak of a saint may mean a man who not 
only keeps his soul free from mortal sin, but who 
tries to banish even venial sin, and to make him- 
self purer in the sight of God from day to daj^ 
who in Catholic terminology is " aiming at per- 
fection." This is the state of soul of those who 
without any manifestation of unusual gifts are 
following out their " religious " vocation in the 
faithful observance of the vows of poverty, chas- 
tity, and obedience. It is a condition of spiritual 
life, incomparably higher than the previous de- 
gree of mere freedom from mortal sin, and de- 
serves in a fuller sense the name of sanctity. But 
far above this again is the sanctity of which the 
Church speaks when there is question of canon- 
ization. Sanctity in this strict and technical sense 
means Christian virtue practised in heroic de- 
gree ; and before the Church commits herself to 
the assertion of this practice of heroic virtue, she 
for greater security, by a self-imposed disciplinary 
enactment, awaits the sanction of Heaven in the 
form of miracles wrought after death at the in- 
stance of the holy man whose life may be under 
examination at the time.* 

* Miracles v/iouglu before the man's death do not necessarily 



1 8 Christopher Columbus. 

Sanctity, then, is Christian virtue practised in 
heroic degree. Progress in virtue is, as Catholic 
asceticism understands it, the gradual absorption 
of self in God. Self-love of the wrong — that is, of 
the earthly — type must cease to be the hidden 
spring of thought and action, and the love of God 
must come to be no longer the predominant but 
the paramount and only ruling principle of life, 
of its entire tenor and its minute details. The 
Apostle expresses the full idea of Christian per- 
fection when he says, " I live, now not I ; but 
Christ liveth in me." Thomas aKempis explains 
the process of working out the same perfection 
when he says, " Fili, quantum a te vales exire, 
tantum in me poteris transire." "^ When a man 
gives his life for God, he passes at once to the 
limit of self-renunciation, for all earthly interests 
and possessions have life for the substratum, ac- 
cording to that of the philosopher : '* Prius est 
esse quam esse tale." Therefore, true martyr- 
dom—/.^., voluntary death in the cause of God- 
is consummate sanctity, and to pray for a-martyr's 
soul is to insult his memory. The case with other 
saints is less clear and their merit less sharply 
defined, but in principle the gift of sanctity is for 
all the same— the exorcism of self, not a casual or 
intermittent forgetfulness of lower motives, but a 

establish his sanctity, for after working the miracles he was stiil 
liable to fall from grace, not being impeccable. 
* AKempis, bk.iii. c. Ivi. 



Christopher Columbtis. 19 

constant and habitual, a conscious and deliberate, 
rejection of every aspiration that does not tend 
to the glory of God either directly or ultimately. 

The Church unquestionably is austere in her 
" canon " of sanctity. She makes really formid- 
able demands and is hard to please, but her de- 
mands are self-consistent and her severity is not 
unreasonable. She believes in a middle state of 
souls suffering for a time, and teaches that God 
does not banish from his face for ever those im 
perfect souls w^hich are not worthy to be straight 
admitted to the Beatific Vision. How pure 
should be the souls that can be received at 
once or very speedily into that happy place 
** where nothing defiled can enter!" Those 
whom the Church canonizes are precisely such 
souls— those whom the all-holy God, whose eyes 
are purer than to behold iniquity, is willing to 
receive to his embrace. 

Tried by so high a standard, will the life of 
a Lord High Admiral, holding command over 
rough sailors and mutinous subjects, reach the 
required immaculateness ? Mild words and gen- 
tle treatment would scarcely avail to keep in 
order the fierce spirits of the Spanish main. It 
is at all events a fact that he was never known 
to swear, and it is certain that many saints, even 
qua tales, have contrived, like St. Bernard and St. 
Antony of Padua, to awe into tame submission to 
their will the fiercest tyrants with their robber- 



20 Christopher Columbus. 

bands behind them. St. Gregory the Seventh 
(Hildebrand) could use imperious tones and deal 
hard blows, and his worst enemies did not accuse 
him of weakness. St. John in the Apocalypse 
puts cowards out of heaven, and Rome does not 
canonize feebleness or inertia. 

Columbus certainly bears on all hands a high 
character. About his general honesty of purpose 
and deep sense of religion there has never been 
a doubt since the petty jealousies of personal 
ill-will were hushed in death. Prescott says: 
'* Whatever were the defects of his mental con- 
stitution, the finger of the historian will find it 
difficult to point to a single blemish in his moral 
character. His correspondence breathes the sen- 
timent of devoted loyalty to his sovereigns. His 
conduct habitually displayed the utmost solici- 
tude for the interests of his followers. He ex- 
pended almost his last maravedi in restoring his 
unfortunate crew to their native land. His deal- 
ings were regulated by the nicest principles of 
honor and justice. His last communication to 
the sovereigns from the Indies remonstrates 
against the use of violent measures in order to 
extract gold from the natives as a thing equally 
scandalous and impolitic. The grand object to 
which he dedicated himself seemed to expand 
his whole soul, and i-aised it above the petty 
shifts and artifices by which great ends are some- 
times sought to be compassed. There are some 



Christopher Columbus, 21 

men in whom rare virtues have been closely 
allied, if not to positive vice, to degrading weak- 
ness. Columbus's character presented no such 
humiliating incongruity. Whether we contem- 
plate it in its public or private relations, in all its 
features it wears the same noble aspect. It was 
in perfect harmony with the grandeur of his plans 
and their results, more stupendous than those 
which Heaven has permitted any other mortal to 
achieve." * 

Washington Irving, though he considers the 
ever-present and pervading sense of a divine ap- 
pointment as the coloring of a poetical tempera- 
ment, and though upon careful reflection he can- 
not altogether excuse his participation in the 
bigotry of the age, yet pays a magnificent tribute 
to his earnestness of piety in an eloquent passage 
which is in everybody's hands.f It is sad to 
think that, with all this genuine admiration for 
his hero, he has notwithstanding been but too 
surely one of those mischievous friends from 
whom it is reasonable to pray to be delivered. 
He has unwittingly lent his powerful aid to de- 
fame, in a matter of grave moment, the man 
whom he undoubtedly meant to honor. 

Columbus has been greatly slandered. In his 
lifetime designing men, envious of his well- 
earned glory, or eager to cheat him out of the 

* " Ferdinand and Isabella," pt. ii. c. ix. 
t " Life of Columbus," bk. xviii. c. v. 



2 2 Christopher Columbus. 

fruits of his labor, made systematic efforts to ruin 
him at the court of Spain, bringing charge after 
charge against him, accusing him of cruelty and 
vanity and unscrupulous ambition, and every vice 
but one, conspicuous by its absence. It was re- 
served for unwary biographers and well-meaning 
panegyrists to supply long after the missing link 
in the chain of iniquity, and to fill up that con- 
spicuous omission. No Catholic ever read the 
life of Nelson without grieving that so great a 
man should have shown so little power to con- 
trol the erring impulses of his own heart. To 
Catholics, a few Avords, mentioning as an ascer- 
tained fact that Columbus formed an unhappy at- 
tachment at Cordova, which helped to beguile 
the tedium of his hope deferred, and to reconcile 
him to a lengthened stay in Spain, w^ould more 
surely ruin all repute of sanctity than any high- 
flown terms of praise could help the claim. He- 
roic virtue cannot co-exist with the violation of 
the moral law, and it is needful to pause at the 
outset of the main enquiry to sift the proofs of a 
charge which Irving and Prescott pass by as a 
trifle, and which perhaps scarcely injures a great 
reputation before '' the world, '* * but which is de- 
structive to those higher pretensions now for the 
first time submitted to the notice of the Church. 
There are in the kingdom of heaven illustrious 
penitents, but the promoters of "■ the cause " of 
* I pray not for " the world" (St. John xvii. 9). 



Christopher Columbus. 23 

Christopher Columbus are not so faint-hearted as 
to content themselves with affirming that in the 
end, after the chastening hand of tribulation had 
lain heavy on him, he turned with a full heart to 
God, and died a saint ; but they profess to believe 
that his career on earth was a sublime vocation, 
nobly responded to, and that he was the predes- 
tined herald of the faith to half the world. 

Truth of history, and moreover the justice 
which even dead men can claim, demand that 
some effort should be made to unsay a falsehood 
which has been in all good faith accepted as a 
truth by the fair-minded and generous Washing- 
ton Irving, and which, having received the sanc- 
tion of his authority and the consecration of his 
style, has not only passed unquestioned in Eng- 
land and America, and wherever the English lan- 
guage is used, but has been translated into all the 
languages of Europe, and has been adopted (with 
improvements) by Alexander von Humboldt in 
his work upon the *' History of the Geography of 
the New World," from which as from a new cen- 
tre of activity it has no doubt radiated into re- 
gions inaccessible to ordinary minds. Washing- 
ton Irving says : 

*' Durins: his first visit to Cordova he had con- 
ceived a passion for a lady of that city, named 
Beatrix Enriquez. This attachment has been 
given as an additional cause of his lingering so 
long in Spain and bearing with the delays he ex- 



24 Christopher Columbtis. 

perienced. Like most of the particulars of this 
part of his life, his connection with this lady is 
wrapped in obscurity. It does not appear to 
have been sanctioned by marriage. The lady is 
said to have been of noble origin. She was the 
mother of his second son, Fernando, who became 
his historian, and whom he always treated on 
terms of perfect equality with his legitimate son, 
Diego " (bk. ii. ch. vi.) 

In the separate biographical sketch of Fernando 
Columbus he says more boldly : 

'\ Fernando Columbus (or Colon, as he is called 
in Spain), the natural son and the historian of the 
admiral, was born in Cordova " (bk. iv. n. 3). 

A few lines further on we read : '' His mother. 
Dona Beatrix Enriquez, was of a respectable 
family, but was never married to the admiral, as 
has been stated by some of his biographers." 

Count Roselly de Lorgues, quite apart from all 
question of the sanctity of his hero, has done good 
service in unravelling the proofs and tracing the 
pedigree of this injurious assertion, which to a 
Catholic reader casts a blight over the noblest 
years of a noble life. Would it be believed? 
The only ultimate foundation of this modern 
theory is the omission, probably accidental, cer- 
tainly not very important, of one zvord, which it 
might indeed have been a satisfaction to find pre- 
sent, but from the omission of which absolutely 
nothing can be lawfully concluded. An inference 



Christopher Cohmibus. 25 

was drawn one hundred and sixty-six years after 
the death of Columbus by a librarian, chiefly 
skilled, M. de Lorgues thinks, in arranging and 
ticketing books, from a copy of the will of Colum- 
bus which b}^ ill-luck came into his keeping. He 
found it therein stated that a pension had been 
settled by Columbus upon Beatrix Enriquez, 
*' mother of his second son, Fernando." The 
word wife was absent, and so, being a man of pre- 
cise mind, he jumped to the conclusion that the 
omission was significant, and without thinking for 
a moment that he was originating a great injus- 
tice, he quietly and artlessly wrote down Don 
Fernando an illegitimate son. This is all the 
known foundation ! For another one hundred 
and twenty 3'ears poor Nicolas Antonio's words 
slept peacefully in the dust of the library shelves 
till they were exhumed by a lawyer, the licentiate 
Luiz de la Palma y Freytas, who found them very 
much to his purpose on occasion of some law- 
suit, and tried to base an argument upon them, 
but they were put out of court. In 180:5 a Pied- 
montese Academician, Galeani Napione, discover- 
ed the lucubrations of the aforesaid lawyer, and 
gained credit as a critic by publishing and en- 
dorsing the same. In 1809 Francesco Cancellieri, 
a learned man, corroborated by his adhesion 
Napione's statement. So far the mischief lay in 
narrow compass. It was reserved for a Genoese, 
the Barnabite Father Spotorno, to set the stone 



2 6 Christopher Cohwzbus. 

rolling-. If M. de Lorgues is correct, Spotorno 
was proud of Columbus as a fellow-citizen, but 
could not forgive the son of Columbus, whom he 
accused of having thrown doubt upon the birth- 
place of his father. His dislike of the son seems 
to have outweighed his respect for the father, for 
he caught up greedily the discovery of Napione, 
which he plagiarized, deriving it immediately 
from Cancellieri, and he procured to himself 
great renown of erudition. Having once com- 
mitted himself, his childish vanity forbade all re- 
consideration. He was appointed by the city of 
Genoa to write a preface to a collection of docu- 
ments relative to Columbus. It was an oppor- 
tunity not to be lost of venting his wrath upon 
Fernando, and of establishing still more strongly 
his own repute as a critic. His official position 
as the delegate of the Genoese lent weight to 
his words. Navarrete, a Spaniard, copied him, 
though he ought to have known better, and be- 
fore his work was finished Washington Irving 
had access to it, and then at last the mischief was 
full fledged and flew away. 

Here is the genesis as given by M. de Lorgues: 

Voici la filiation bibliographique de cette calomnie : * 
Humboldt I'a tiree de Washington Irving, 
Washington Irving I'a tiree de Navarrete, 
Navarrete I'a tiree de Spotorno, 
Spotorno I'a tiree de Cancellieii, 

*"L'Ambass. de Dieu," p. 3S2; see also "Christophe Colomb," 
i. p. 44, seq. 



Christopher Columbus. 27 

Cancellieri I'a tiree de Napione, 
Napione I'a tiree du procureur Freytas, 
Freytas I'a tiree du bibliographe Nicolao, 
Nicolao I'a tiree de sa lourde cervelle. 

If this mighty superstructure rests upon an in- 
sufficient basis of external evidence, it has no in- 
trinsic strength to hold it together. Columbus's 
enemies, numerous enough, could have greatl^^ 
diminished his credit with the Queen by charging 
him with vicious living. This was the one thing 
which they seem to have considered a hopeless 
attempt. Beatrix Enriquez was of a good and 
religious family, yet there is not one word of 
their resentment. Queen Isabella admitted Fer- 
nando into her service as a page with his brother 
Diego, and this she would scarcely have done if 
he had not been of reputable extraction. The 
terms of close intimacy maintained by Columbus 
with Father Juan Perez and the Franciscan com- 
munity at La Rabida, during the whole time to 
which the imputation attaches, forbid the sus- 
picion of conduct which would convert all his 
devout demeanor into odious hypocrisy. All the 
tenor of his life contradicts the supposition of his 
guilt. His long absence from Cordova, his de- 
votedness to one great idea, show that he was not 
the slave of an unworthy passion. If against all 
this it is urged that Beatrix is scarcely ever men- 
tioned and that she never appears on state occa- 
sions, a very simple answer is the possible solu- 
tion : viz., that she is not mentioned because she 



28 Christopher Columbus, 

did nothing that required to be mentioned, but 
lived on quietly with the two boys at Cordova. 

Silence is sometimes convincing. When a man 
has a host of enemies hovering round like eagles 
ready to pounce upon him the moment he shows 
any weakness, and if a moral delinquency would 
be just the kind of weakness which they '* would 
give their eyes" to discover, he not onW cannot 
be leading a bad life, but he must be pure as a 
saint, if they cannot make it worth their while to 
come down upon him. We may add to this that 
Herrera, a most trustworthy historian, according 
to the Academy of History of Madrid, and by the 
testimony of Charlevoix, Tiraboschi, and Robert- 
son, says that Columbus was married in Spain, 
and that another author of great repute, Alvarez 
de Colmenar, speaks of his having been twice 
married; that the genealogical trees, of which 
there are several, uniformly put Diego and Fer- 
nando on the same branch ; that the boys are 
alwa3^s mentioned on terms of equality, even in 
legal documents ; and that we have the words of 
Columbus himself complaining that he has been 
long absent from his wife and children. There 
would seem to be very poor reasons for doubting, 
and many good, and some very good, reasons for 
feeling sure, that Dona Beatrix was his lawful 
wedded wife. And if so, then the poor lady and 
her husband will be grateful to M. de Lorgues. 
There is a sort ot providential unity of plan com- 



Christopher Columbus, 29 

bining the past and present in this tardy restora- 
tion of honor. Columbus had troubles enough 
and to spare in life-time : it seemed cruel that 
when three centuries had passed over his grave 
new misdeeds should be laid to his account ; but 
as the native tribes of India were alternately the 
friends and foes of British rule, and Sepoys 
helped us against Sikhs, and Sikhs a few years 
later against Sepoys, so the contemporaries of 
Columbus and his modern admirers have perse- 
cuted him in turn, and then rescued him from 
obloquy. The consent of dispassionate posterity 
readily dispelled the invidious falsehoods of eye 
witnesses, and the unanimous silence of eye- 
witnesses abundantly disproves the erroneous 
inference of a later date.* A black cloud has 
been lifted from his memory, and in the pure 
evening air we are free to cast a rapid glance 
over the landscape of his troubled life. That it 
was a wonderful life, with broad Hghts and deep 
shadows, no one, believer or unbeliever, can well 
deny: whether it be that the light is due to 
grace or to intellectual power, and the shadow is 
heaven-sent tribulation or human vicissitude and 
mere fortune of war. The Holy Father, when 

* The well-known anecdote about the ^gg made to stand on 
end is found by closer scrutiny to rest on almost as unstable a 
basis as the egg itself did before Columbus flattened one end by 
breaking it ; but it really does not deserve the indignant repudia- 
tion which it has received. A great man may once in a way 
make a sadly pointless joke without ceasing on that account to 
be a hero or a saint. 



30 Clwistopher Columbus. 

asked about the advisability o»f "■ introducing the 
cause " of the servant of God, with worldly wis- 
dom worthy of a prime minister careful not to 
commit himself, gave the studiously guarded 
reply, *' Tentare non nocet." So it may be said 
by lesser folk, there is no harm in trying to have 
a truer knowledge of the man, and if nothing 
results from the enquiry but the increased con- 
viction that Columbus was an extraordinarily 
good man and a saint latiore sensu, this much at 
least is worth the doing, and is a duty owing to a 
much -wronged memory. It is not too late, we 
are told, to effect a canonization exceptio?iali ordine, 
and it is never too late to render justice. 

Washinsrton Irvins;- besfins his '' Life of Colum- 
bus" with the words, " Of the early days of Chris- 
topher Columbus nothing certain is known. The 
time of his birth, his birthplace, his parentage, are 
all involved in obscurity, and such has been the 
perplexing ingenuity of commentators that it is 
difficult to extricate the truth from the web of 
conjectures with which it is interwoven." It often 
happens that in the earlier stages of a discussion 
it is difficult to estimate the real value of counter- 
statements, so that a prudent historian shrinks 
from being too dogmatic ; but even in Washing- 
ton Irving's time there were authentic documents 
enough before the world to have justified him in 
pronouncing fearlessly that the time was 1435, 
and the place Genoa ; and the progress of the 



Christopher Colitnibiis. 31 

discussion since the date at which he wrote, 1826, 
has placed the matter now beyond the power of 
all but wilful ignorance to call in question. The 
Genoese since the beginning of this century have 
shown much public spirit and a laudable desire 
to atone for the strange neglect which left their 
great fellow-townsman uncommemorated for sev- 
enty years and without any fitting monument till 
1845. The combined reports of several learned 
commissions have dissipated the pretensions of 
Savona, Sacona, Cuccaro, Cogoletto, and may be 
some other towns and villages. Perhaps little 
Cogoletto may still refuse to take down its vain- 
glorious inscription. Columbus's own simple as- 
sertion, twice repeated in an authentic paper, that 
he was born at Genoa, should be alone enough to 
remove all doubt.* 

His father had been long resident at Genoa. 
The good man is dismissed by our Protestant his- 
torians with the simple mention of his abode and 
employment, his Christian name being apparently 
unknown to them. It would almost seem that 
they only cared to establish through him the fact 
that Columbus was of Adam's race. He deserves, 
however, that all that can be made out about him 
should be recorded, for it is foolish to suppose 
that a good Christian father like Domenico Co- 

* " Siendo yo nacido en Geneva." And again, speaking of 
Genoa, " Delia sali y en ella naci " {Instihicion del Mayorazgo de 
22 dc Febrero de 1498 ; Colcccicn aiphtiidtica] ^Qfmva. n. cxxi.) 



32 Christopher Cohimbus. 

lombo the wool-comber had not a very great deal 
indeed to do with the formation of that unflinch- 
ing- character which bore down all opposition, 
and lived through all discouragement to accom- 
plish a great purpose. High principle, and the 
honesty of soul which defies seduction and hates 
as the gates of helP all that is mean and sordid, 
are seldom the acquisitions of later life. They 
commonly come almost as by a traductio animaritin 
from the parents, and are fully developed in 
childhood, before the early training of home has 
been supplemented by the skilled labors of school- 
masters and learned professors. Domenico, 
though never rich, did not feel the pressure of 
actual poverty till a series of little reverses had 
reduced his income, and old age and anxiety had 
begun to prey upon his health. He worked hard 
to support his family of four sons and a daughtcr.f 
At the time of the birth of his eldest son he was 
living in a house, his own property, with shop 
and garden, outside the walls of Genoa, near the 
gate of Sant' Andrea, on the Bisagno road. He 

* ^ExOpof yap /not keTvo'^ c ^cJ? dt'Sao TTvXydiv 
"O's x^ EtEpov fxbv hevSez Evi (ppEdiv aXXo Se fidt,Ei. 

{Iliad, ix. 312.) 

f Christopher, Bartholomew, John Pellegrino, and James. 
Washington Irving counts only three sons, omitting John Pelle- 
grino, who died in early manhood. James was such an invalid 
that his father found him much more a burden than a help. 
Giovanni Colombo, the grandfather of Christopher, lived at 
Quinto, and seems to have possessed some modest competence. 
Domenico married Susanna, daughter of James Fontanarossa, of 
the village of Bisagno. 



Christopher Colicnibus. ^2> 

possessed also a little freehold in the valley of 
Nura, and some patches of land in the neighbor- 
hood of Quinto. He strove to improve his re- 
sources by combing wool, and had also a cloth 
factory on a diminutive scale, giving employment 
to two men. In this suburban residence Colum- 
bus saw the light of day. He was baptized in 
the ancient Church of San Stefano, at that time 
standing on a little hill apart. It is the church 
now known as San Stefano deli' Arco. Modern 
research agreeing with local tradition has estab- 
lished this point against the often-repeated state- 
ment, disproved by comparison of dates, that the 
baptism took place in the house in the Via di 
Mulcento. Some years later Domenico found it 
advantageous to let his own house, probably to 
be used as a roadside inn, and he became a tenant 
of the Benedictine Fathers, hiring from them a 
little house in the steep and narrow Via di Mul- 
cento, which was in the part of the town where 
the wool-combers chiefly congregated. There 
are extant several receipts lor rent of this house 
paid by Domenico. Later the Colombo family 
migrated to Savona, in the hope, not realized, of 
mending their trade prospects, and there Christo- 
pher, taking with him his little boy Diego, visited 
his aged father in 1485, after his unsuccessful ap- 
plication to the republics of Genoa and Venice, 
and the pitiful attempt of John the Second of 
Portugal to filch from him the fruit of long and 



34 Christopher Cohcmbus, 

earnest study. His mother was then dead, and 
perhaps it was on this occasion that the old man 
went back to Genoa. He lived to know that his 
son had discovered a world. 

Christopher was a precocious boy, and quickly- 
learned reading, writing, and arithmetic, and 
drawing and painting, but geography was his 
passion. His father, proud of his son's attain- 
ments, pinched himself to procure him a good 
education, and somewhat ambitiously sent him 
at ten years of age to the University of Padua. 
There he no doubt acquired the seeds of know- 
ledge wdiich he knew so well afterwards how to 
develop, but it is clear that he did not make 
much actual progress, and at the age of twelve 
he was removed by his father, most likely from 
inability to meet the expense any longer, and he 
worked at his father's trade for the next two 
years. .Perhaps his son Fernando, who denies 
this, only meant that there was not a formal ap- 
prenticeship. The sea was, however, his destined 
field of action, and his turn for geography was of 
that practical kind which finds pleasure indeed in 
studying maps and brooding over the conjectures 
of famous explorers, but v/ith much greater plea- 
sure still learns to trace out new lines of coast in 
a caravel. At fourteen he went to sea, as he tells 
us himself. Englishmen will scarcely see any- 
thing in this eventful choice except the natural 
preference of a spirited boy brought up in a sea- 



Christopher Cohiinbus. 35 

port town. Schoolmasters know how greedily 
English boys, even in these prosaic days, devour 
tales of the sea, and what a strange fascination 
there is to many young minds in the thought of 
wandering at will over vast spaces of unfathomed 
sea, with no disagreeable reminiscences of heav- 
ing billows to spoil the happy dream. 

** Oh ! who can tell, save he whose heart hath tried, 
And danced in triumph o'er ihe waters wide, 
Th' exulting sense, the pulses' madd'ning play, 
That thrills the wand'rer of that trackless way ? " 

There is no need to wonder at the step taken by 
young Columbus, more especially when to sit 
upon a bench combing wool was the lively alter- 
native ; but to ascribe the choice to the most 
purely natural motives is by no means to treat 
with less respect the special supervision of an 
overruling Providence at the outset of a great 
career, for indeed more frequently than not God 
leads men by the path of their own natural cha- 
racter even to the sublimest apostolate. 

There was not the same hard and fast line in 
those days as in these, separating the nav}^ and 
merchant service, and a commander apparently 
was named either admiral or arch-pirate ac- 
cording to the political views of the speaker. 
We certainl}^ find Columbus in the first years of 
his sailor life engaged in expeditions of a some- 
what dubious character. He served under two 
celebrated captains of his own name, and pro- 
bably distantly related to his famil}^ — Colombo 



o 



6 Christopher Columbus. 



the elder, the '* arch-pirate," and a nephew of 
the same, called Colombo the younger, both 
honorably distinguished for good service against 
the Turks. Life on sea in the Mediterranean at 
that period seems to have been conducted on the 
liberal principles explained in the " Odyssey." 
There was incessant fighting going on between 
Christian princes by land and sea, and the Mus 
sulman was the common enemy of all. No won- 
der if there was some little confusion occasionally 
about just and unjust wars, or the exact lines of 
demarcation between naval enterprise and pri- 
vateering and piracy. At any rate, it was mag- 
nificent schooling for one designed to take com- 
mand of men who were bold adventurers even 
when they were not lawless desperadoes. At 
this time we must suppose that the effort to di- 
minish the number of the Turks, those enemies 
of God and man,* gave legitimate employment to 

*In the light of the recent " atrocities," it is more easy to form 
a notion of the terror caused by the Turks in their plenitude of 
power, and how dreadful was the fate from which St. Clare's in- 
tercession saved her community. *' When the Saracens were be- 
sieging Assisi, and trying to effect an entrance into Clare's con- 
vent, she, though ill, caused herself to be carried to the gate, and 
with her a vessel containing the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eu- 
charist ; and in that place she prayed : ' Deliver not, O Lord ! 
to beasts souls confessing thee, and guard thy handmaids whom 
thou hast redeemed with thy Precious Blood.' At this prayer a 
voice was heard : ' I will guard you always.' Then some of the 
Saracens turned and fled, and others who had scaled the wall 
were struck blind and fell headlong down " (Brev., August 12). 
It was not mere bigotry which gave to an expedition against "the 
Infidel " the character of a holy war, and made the thinning of 
their ranks a sacred duty to soldiers and sailors. 



Christopher Columbus. ^y 

the ardent zeal of young Columbus, and the indi- 
rect advancement of the cause of King Rene 
would serve to justify in his eyes some daring 
raids of the old '' arch-pirate." When he first as- 
sumed command himself it was in the service of 
this King Rene, who commissioned him to exe- 
cute a daring feat which was too much for the 
courage of his men. He had recourse to strata- 
gem, and by altering the compass led them into 
action under the idea that they were homeward- 
bound. 

The energy and enlightened policy of the truly 
admirable Prince Henry of Portugal, whose mo- 
ther was an English lady, the sister of our Henry 
IV., had made Lisbon at this epoch the great 
centre of maritime activity. Bartholomew Co- 
lombo was already established there as a distin- 
guished cosmographer, making maps and globes 
and nautical instruments with much applause, 
when, by accident or design, his elder brother, to 
whom he was warmly attached, and whose com- 
panion in arms he was worthy to be, arrived to 
take up his abode there. This was about 1470, 
and the hair of Christopher was white even then, 
according to Las Casas. What Washington 
Irving says of him at this stage of his life has a 
deep meaning for his Catholic readers, more par- 
ticularly considering that it expresses the out- 
come of what might have been supposed, in the 
disappointing absence of all details, to have been 



38 Christopher Columbus. 

alaiost the wild, boisterous life of a modified 
buccaneer. *' He was moderate and simple in 
diet and apparel, eloquent in discourse, engaging- 
and affable with strangers, and of an amiableness 
and suavity in domestic life that strongly attached 
his household to his person. His temper was na- 
turally irritable, but he subdued it by the magna- 
nimity of his spirit, comporting himself with a 
courteous and gentle gravity, and never indulg- 
ing in any intemperance of language. Through- 
out his life he was noted for a strict attention to 
the offices of religion, observing rigorously the 
fasts and ceremonies of the Church ; nor did his 
piety consist in mere forms, but partook ot that 
lofty and solemn enthusiasm with which his 
whole character was strongly tinctured." It is 
evident that he had not amid his roving and 
fighting forgotten God, and he would not have 
been so gentle after such rude training if he had 
not habitually practised extraordinary self-re- 
straint, which only his deep sense of religion 
could have given him the power to do. He 
could never have been, under the circumstances, 
as good as Washington Irving declares unless he 
had been vastl}^ better than ever Washington Irv- 
ing imagined. His virtue was of a more spiri- 
tual kind than British self respect or devotion to 
duty, and involved, w^e may be sure, not a little 
of Christian mortification of will and readiness to 
carrv the cross for the love of Christ. In Lis- 



Christopher Columbus. 39 

boil Columbus used to attend Mass every morn- 
ing at the church of the Convent of All Saints. 
Before long he married Dona Felipa de Peres- 
trello, the daughter of an Italian gentleman 
whom Prince Henry, for his distinguished ser- 
vices, had created Governor of Porto Santo, be- 
stowing upon him large but calamitously unpro- 
ductive estates in that island.* However, the 
family, though poor, held so high a position in 
the country, and were so much in favor at the 
court, that the approval which they certainly 
gave to the marriage is an argument that Co- 
lumbus was not regarded as a man of plebeian 
origin or a mere needy adventurer. This con- 
nection was very opportune, and gave both fresh 
stimulus to his maritime propensities and great 
increase of means for their gratification. The 
widow of Don Bartholomew^ Perestrello spoke 
much to her son-in-law of her husband's dis- 
coveries, and made over to him many interesting 
log-books and charts of his various vogages. He 
soon after visited with his wife the extensive 
rabbit-warren in Porto Santo, and it was there 
that his eldest son Diego was born. The place 
itself, on the western verge of the habitable world, 
was suggestive to a man much addicted to geo- 
graphy, and there was no lack of travellers* tales 

*The rabbits seem to have had their own way on the Gover- 
nor's estate, and systematically devoured all the produce of the 
soil till they ruined him in the end. 



40 Christopher Columbtis, 

in those days of mysterious yearning after the 
unknown. In 1474 he was in correspondence 
with Paolo ToscaneUi, physician of Florence, who 
was a kind of grand referee to the explorers 
and cosmographers of his time, and was highly 
esteemed at the Papal Court. A letter of Tos- 
caneUi to Columbus, dated June 25, 1474, is ex- 
tant, in which he shows lively interest in the pro- 
posal of Columbus to sail westward, and takes 
notice of his ardent desire to spread the know- 
ledge of the faith. '' A deep religious sentiment," 
says again Washington Irving, " mingled with his 
meditations and gave them at times a tinge of 
superstition, but it was of a sublime and lofty 
kind." Superstition is a convenient word which 
is used to tone down what might otherwise seem 
extravagant praise ; but to say that Columbus 
was superstitious because he considered himself 
the envoy of God is to prejudge the question. 
When once the great resolve was taken it was 
never more laid aside. This was the real point 
of departure in the discovery of America, not 
that other moment when Ferdinand and Isabella 
signed the conditions conferring the vice-royahy 
of the Indies on him and his heirs, nor yet the 
moment when he set sail with an unwilHng crew 
of conscript sailors from Palos. The idea never 
went from his mind ; it only gained strength 
from rebuffs and delays, cold answers and cruel 
evasions. We see the grandeur of mind of Co- 



ChristopJier Columbus. 41 

lumbus best in those eighteen years of weary wait- 
ing and hoping against hope, when heaven and 
earth seemed to conspire against him, when 
opinions were divided about him, and some con- 
sidered him a dangerous lunatic, and some more 
than half a heretic, and even his well-wishers for 
the most part thought that he indulged in much 
unprofitable dreaming, while all the time he saw 
and felt the vigorous years of his manhood 
waning fast, and death perhaps approaching to 
carry him away with his mighty purpose unful- 
filled. Perhaps something within him answered 
that he would not die till he had carried Christ 
across the water. 

Robertson^' says correctly that Columbus made 
his first application to the Senate of his native 
Genoa. It was refused. Columbus was better 
known in Lisbon than at Genoa, and as Genoese 
navigation had been till then confined to the 
Mediterranean, the ocean-voyage was an idea too 
new to be fully grasped by the senators. It is 
not certain but highly probable that from Genoa 
Columbus turned to Venice. A polite refusal 
was his only answer. From Venice he paid a 
visit to his father at Savona in 1470, and from his 
own slender means did his best to help the old 



*•' History of America," bk. ii. Irving says, bk. i. ch. vii. : 
"This (viz., the application to the crown of Portugal) is the first 
proposition of which we have any clear and indisputable record," 
etc. Subsequent research has removed the doubt. 



42 Christopher Cohunbiis. 

man, then seventy years of age, and weighed 
down by accumulated misfortunes. From Sa- 
vona he returned to Portugal and laid his scheme 
before John the Second, who, though he had 
something of the enterprizing spirit of his great 
uncle. Prince Henry of happy memory, was con- 
siderably startled by the boldness of the project. 
Nowadays when little boys under governess 
tuition have more definite ideas of geography 
than Paolo Toscanelli had then, and when not 
little caravels are coasting nervously but mate- 
rialistic steamers are steering along great circles 
to the ends of the earth, and there is a beaten 
highway from Liverpool to New York almost as 
clearly traced as a Roman road, it is really diffi- 
cult to get ourselves back into the ideas of pre- 
Columbite times : 

*' Ille robur et ses triplex 
Circa pectus erat qui fragilem truci 

Commisit pelago ratem 
Primus." 

What Columbus proposed to do was absolutely 
speaking a very bold design, for no captain now 
would try a long voyage in such ships as they 
had then, but relatively speaking and judged by 
the standard of those days, and in the face of the 
very real dangers of unexplored seas, and the far 
more awful terrors with which fancy invested the 
distant recesses of the ocean never 3'€t seen by 
human eye, it was more than daring. It seemed 
like tempting God, and madness and self-destruc- 



Christopher Columbus. 43 

tion were terms that suited well the act of men 
who could indeed make the outward voyage if so 
they felt inclined, but who could neither control 
their subsequent fate nor reasonably entertain a 
hope of ever coming back. However, John the 
Second thought the matter over, and had other 
interviews with Columbus, and cam.e to look up- 
on the scheme as less eondemnable and not en- 
tirely chimerical. He first appointed three com- 
missioners, and then convoked his council to 
pronounce upon the feasibility of the undertaking. 
The judgment of both tribunals was adverse. 
The king would in spite of this have given his 
consent if it had not been for the high, price at 
which Columbus valued his services. He set 
forth his claims and offered his conditions more 
like an independent sovereign making a treaty 
with a brother monarch than a subject presenting 
a petition. It is only another trait which helps 
us to know the man. He came to the king with 
his Sibylline books and named his price, and if the 
king wanted the Sibylline books, nine, or six, or 
three, he would have to make up his mind to pay 
the unalterable sum. John in an evil hour listened 
to bad a^dvisers, and without the cognizance of 
Columbus sent off a ship to explore the Western 
route and see if the project was worth entertain- 
ing. Of course these messengers of the king, 
destitute of all inspiration or enthusiasm, soon 
came back to say the voyage was an impossible 



44 Christopher Cohimbus, 

one. Portugal had the shame of a petty larceny, 
and though John in his repentance would have 
gladly given Columbus what he asked, a deaf ear 
was turned to all further proposals of one who no 
longer deserved to be trusted. Columbus got to- 
gether some little effects as secretly as he could, 
and with his son Diego made the best of his way 
out of Portugal at the close of 1484. There was 
reason enough for his flight in the fear of what 
his enemies at the court might do; but if he also 
left some debts unpaid, as Irving on slight 
grounds supposes,* his departure could still be 
justified by necessity, and the intention of repa}-- 
ment on the first possibility would save con- 
science and good name. He sailed for Genoa, 
and solicitously pressed his offer upon the Gov- 
ernment, but the fleet of the Republic was required 
for home service and not a vessel could be spared. 
It was at this time that he took little Diego, whose 
mother was now dead, to see his grandfather, as 
has been already mentioned. 

Columbus now cast his e3^es round the Euro- 
pean thrones. The Christian spirit of Spain, and 
her power on sea, seemed to hold out hope of the 
help he sought. There were wonderful stories 
about his first landing in Portugal. His arrival 
in Spain is also mysterious. He is first heard of 
as a vagrant asking for a little bread at the gate 

**■ " Life of Columbus," bk. i. c. viii. 



ChristopJier Columbus. 45 

of the Franciscan Convent of La Rabida, close to 
the little sea-port town of Palos in Andalusia. 
He had his little boy with him, and was on his 
way to Huelva to see a sister-in-law, with whom, 
in spite of her poverty, he no doubt wished to 
leave Diego. Irving says he was going to Pedro 
Correa, his brother-in-law, formerly Governor of 
Porto Santo, but this is now known to be a mis- 
take. The father-guardian of the convent, Fra 
Juan Perez de Marchena, found his friend the 
physician, Garcia Hernandez, in conversation with 
the stranger in the porch. Some good angel had 
certainly guided Columbus to La Rabida, for 
Friar Juan Perez was no ordinary man. Scarcely 
another man in Spain w^as so well prepared by 
nature and study to appreciate the great thoughts 
of that strange mendicant. Washington Irving 
does justice to the hearty friendship, but scarcely 
to the scientific attainments, of the good Francis- 
can, for he seems to suppose that Garcia Her- 
nandez was called in to supply the knowledge 
needed. 

Father Perez had been the confessor of Queen 
Isabella, but a court life was less to his liking 
than retirem<-Tit and study. His love for mathe- 
matics and cosmography was only the handmaid 
of his zeal for souls. He longed for the discovery 
of new lands, in order that Christ might be 
preached to more men ; and with him, as with Co- 
lumbus at Porto Santo, the place of his abode was 



46 Christopher Columbus. 

well suited to feed his restless imagination and 
his Christian hopes. He had built a kind of ob- 
servatory on the roof of his monastery, and he 
spent much of his spare time in contemplating the 
stars by night and the sea by day. Did that mare 
tenebrosiun really bound the world, or had it a fur- 
ther shore with races of men to be evangelized ? 
There was infinite room for speculation where all 
was conjecture* Some cosmographers thought 
that the mare tcncbros2im could be sailed across in 
three years, and some thought that it was of inde« 
finite extent. Fra Juan Perez had reached the 
advanced stage of venturing to doubt theimprac- 
ticabilit}^ of a V03^age across, when Columbus ap- 
peared at his Gonvent-gate, and soon the doubt of 
an alleged impossibility gave place to the ardent 
desire of an actual accomplishment. The father- 
guardian was a good friend from the first. He 
made Columbus live at his convent till a favorable 
opportunity should present itself for laying his 
plans before Ferdinand and Isabella ; and we can« 
not doubt that it Was at this period of his life that 
he acquired that astonishing acquaintance with 
patristic theology which must have seemed to 
the bishops and doctors of the Junta of Salamanca 
a curious result of a sailor's education. There is 
no record of his conventual life; for, most unfor- 
tunately, the archives of La Rabida perished ut- 
terly in some revolution of the present century, 
the library being pillaged and the manuscripts de=, 



Christophci^ Cohtinbus. 47 

stro3^ed, and the convent itself was finally aban- 
doned on the suppression of religious houses in 
1834.- 

It is no unfair surmise that he spent his time in 
religious preparation for his great work. We 
know how he ever looked upon himself as a son 
of St. Francis, hastening back to his cell at La 
Rabida on his return from the first voyage to 
give thanks to God and Our Blessed Lady, before 
he thought of presenting himself to be glorified 
by all Spain ; and we know that after his second 
voyage, disgusted with the ingratitude of the 
world even then, though he had not yet been sent 
back from America f in chains, he wore publicly 
the habit of St. Francis, not, as L*ving suggests, 
in fulfilment of some vow, but because he was 
meditating a final retreat to La Rabida to end his 
days in religion. But there remained much to do 
and suffer yet. 

Father Perez had an influential friend at court, 
the Hieronymite Father Fra Fernando de Tala- 
vera, Prior of Our Lady of Prado at Valladolid, 
confessor of the king and queen, a man of learn- 
ing and virtue, and he felt that, in recommending 

* The Duke de Montpeiisier in 1854 undertook the rertoration 
of the monastery and the church. The cell of the father-guar- 
dian was especially Cared for. 

fThe very nnme " America" is an ingratitude that cries io 
heaven. Amerigo Vespucci falsely asserted that he had dig- 
Qovered the continent, ai;d the lie has been immortal i/ed. 



48 Christopher Columbus. 

Columbus to the intercession of such a man, he 
was almost ensuring the successful issue of his ap- 
plication. But the learning of the Prior of Prado 
was not in the cosmographical line, and he was at 
all times unwilling to push his right of patronage. 
The letter of Father Perez only served to show 
that he himself had too readily assented to the 
dreams of this unknown enthusiast, and Fernando 
de Talavera had no mind to assist the delusion. 
He listened with perfect politeness to the explana- 
tions of Columbus, but he did not intend at that 
time, more particularly when the attention of the 
sovereigns was concentrated on the Moorish war, 
to allow any idle dreams to molest their sacred 
ears. Columbus was helpless, and had to fall 
back upon caligraphy and map-making for his 
support. This was at Cordova, where the sover- 
eigns, always in movement, happened then to be. 
It was during this painful suspense that he mar- 
ried Doila Beatrix Enriquez. The lad}^ seems to 
have been fascinated first. She must have en- 
countered much opposition and ridicule from her 
own immediate friends and from her kinsmen of 
the powerful Arafla family, but she was in earnest. 
Poverty and anxiety could never vulgarize Co- 
lumbus, and a kind-hearted and romantic girl 
might easily find him worth loving. His marriage 
did not change his plans. When he found that 
Talavera was a hindrance, not a help, he wrote 
with his own hand a characteristic letter to the 



Christopher Columbus. 49 

king-, in which he confined himself to stating 
facts. No notice was taken of the letter. He 
succeeded, however, in making the acquaintance 
of Antonio Geraldini, formerly Papal Nuncio, 
who at the queen's request had returned to 
Spain to be tutor to her eldest daughter, and 
was by him introduced to the great Cardinal 
Mendoza, Grand Chancellor of Castile. The 
keen eye of Mendoza recognized at once the 
extraordinary merit of Columbus, and he felt it 
a duty to obtain for him an audience. Columbus, 
careless about his humble dress and foreign ac- 
cent, presented himself (they are his own words) 
as '' sent on an embassy " by the goodness of God 
to the most powerful of Christian piinces and 
the most zealous for the faith. He spoke to them 
of ''serving our Lord, spreading the knowledge 
of his name and the light of faith among many 
nations." He had held out temporal motives 
also to tempt Genoa and Venice. Perhaps he 
thought that Isabella was less mercenary, or per- 
haps his stay with the Franciscans had made him 
more unworldly. The service of God our Lord 
held evidently the first place in his esteem, and 
that is a point too lightly passed over by most of 
our informants. Isabella seems from that mo- 
ment to have entertained a genuine esteem for 
Columbus, and was his friend for life. Ferdinand, 
with his usual caution, commissioned Fernando 
de Talavera to call a council of learned men to 



50 Christopher Columbus, 

examine into the case. The court was then at 
Salamanca, a place of great learning. To the 
council were summoned all the men of science ol 
the University of Salmanca, professors present 
and past, and they met in the Dominican convent 
of St. Stephen. Fra Juan Perez de Marchena, un- 
happily, was not one of the board, and the chief 
cosmographer of Spain, Jayme Ferrer, the learned 
lapidary of Burgos, was absent in the East. Tala- 
vera was not quite the president Columbus would 
have chosen, and all came disposed to judge harshly 
of a man who in his pride preferred his own con- 
clusions to the united learning of mankind. Many 
silly objections, as we know, were made. Texts 
from Scripture and the fathers were quoted to 
disprove the roundness of the earth and the ex- 
istence of men with their feet above their heads. 
Columbus was a little hampered in his answers by 
his resolve not to be too circumstantial in relating 
his plans, for fear of exposing himself a second 
time to the perfidious treatment he had experi- 
enced from King John of Portugal; but he dis- 
played marvellous erudition of an unexpected 
kind, and seemed to have the writings of 
philosophers and fathers of the Church at his 
command. The Dominican Fathers in whose 
house the conferences were held were almost 
alone in their favorable judgment of his cause, 
and they also, though the examination lasted 
long, generously entertained him all the time. 



Christopher Columbits, 51 

and even paid the expenses of his journey. The 
Father Diego de Deza, their first professor of 
theology, was completely convinced by his rea- 
soning, and gained over the leading men of the 
university. But the majority voted the project 
chimerical, while the rest seem to have thought 
it scarcely practical, and the council broke up 
with no very definite declaration at the time. 
Before the council dispersed the court had left 
Salamanca. One consequence, at all events, was 
the increased consideration for a man who had 
given so much trouble. He was regarded hence- 
forth as an important person, and was on several 
occasions summoned to court, having his expenses 
paid ; but nothing was done, and truly the Moor- 
ish war might well be a valid excuse at this date 
(1487) for postponing other business. The bitter- 
ness of suspense was made more bitter by scoffs 
and taunts and abundant ridicule. 

If the conscience of Columbus had been less 
tender, he might now have had what he wished 
without further delay ; for John of Portugal re- 
newed his offers, and was in no frame of mind for 
disputing over the terms. But Ferdinand had 
given no definitive refusal, and, while his appeal 
to the crown of Spain was actually pending, Co- 
lumbus did not consider himself at liberty to take 
service under any other prince. Perhaps, also, he 
had made one of his irrevocable resolutions to 
have no more dealing^ with a man who had once 



52 Christopher Columbus, 

proved false. He wrote to John, and from the 
answer, which is extant, it would seem that he 
expressed some apprehension about his personal 
safety in Portugal. The king promised him safe 
conduct. This is the chief reason to Irving and 
others for thinking he left Portugal under pres- 
sure of debt; but though the fact may have been 
as they suppose, the argument is obviously incon- 
clusive, for many causes of uneasiness might sug- 
gest themselves to one who had powerful and 
jealous enemies in the countr3\ It is a little diffi- 
cult to trace the history of the application made 
by Bartholomew Columbus to Henry the Seventh 
of England. The usual account is that Christo- 
pher sent his brother on that embassy about the 
time of his own departure from Portugal; but this 
cannot be correct, for a map presented by Bar- 
tholomew to Henry bears date 1488, and Bartho- 
lomew was certainly otherwise employed in i486 
and 1487." On the other hand, it would not 
have been in keeping with the upright character 
and consistent conduct of Columbus to solicit the 
aid of England and refuse the aid of Portugal 
while he was prosecuting his suit in Spain. Ro- 
bertson says that Bartholomew started on the 
mission, but that, being captured by pirates and 
subsequently in great indigence in London, he 
could not present himself till three years later. 

•^ Irviri:?'s " Life of Columbus," bk. i. ch. viii. 



Christophe7^ Cohunbiis. 53 

He adds that Ilcnry gave him a favorable recep- 
tion. Columbus now followed the court as it 
moved from place to place in the prosecution of 
the war, and he must have watched with aching- 
heart the long- round of festivities which greeted 
at Seville first the capture of Baza and then the 
marriage of the young Isabella of Spain with Don 
Alonzo, heir presumptive to the crown of Portu- 
gal. Columbus knew that there would be no 
peace till Isabella had Granada in her hands, and 
that the recommencement of the war would mean 
an indefinite postponement of his cause, so he 
pressed at once for the formal reply of the Junto 
of Salamanca. The Prior of Prado, appointed in 
the interval Bishop of Avila, was instructed to 
furnish it, and it was to the effect that '' the pro- 
ject rested on a false basis, since the author of it 
asserted as a truth what was an impossibility." 
Even after this answer Isabella would not dismiss 
the case, and Talavera was instructed to say that 
as soon as the war was over there should be a 
fresh discussion. 

Columbus by this time was well inured to de- 
lay and contumely, but the delay seemed now 
likely to be interminable, and still he could not 
leave Catholic Spain without one effort more. 
It was not Beatrix Enriquez who kept him spell- 
bound there, for his affection had never been per- 
mitted yet to interfere with the ruling idea of his 
life ; but Spain was even now fighting the infidel, 



54 Christopher Columbus. 

and Spain deserved to be the patron of the Cross. 
If the king and queen were too busy with the 
campaign, there were other Spaniards of ahnost 
regal power and wealth who could fit out his 
little armament. He applied to the Duke of Me- 
dina Sidonia, but he also was busy with the war. 
He turned to the Duke of Medina Celi, and this 
great nobleman consented to furnish him with all 
things needful ; but at the last moment he be- 
thought him that such an enterprise scarcely be- 
longed to a subject, and he asked the queen to 
give her sanction. She returned a gracious an- 
swer, but begged him to leave the expedition to 
the crown, and she summoned Columbus and 
told him that he really must v/ait till the close of 
the war, and he should then receive full satisfac- 
tion. But the end of the war was an event of the 
uncertain future, and Columbus felt that his time 
was growing with every wasted year more pre- 
cious. He made up his mind to go at once to 
the King of France,^' who had written an en- 
couraging letter. He went first to La Rabida to 
take Diego from the care of Father Perez and 
leave him with little Fernando in his wife's hands 
at Cordova. We may imagine the grief of the 
father-guardian to see his friend, after so many 
years of patient hope, return with his prayer un- 
heard. He called in Don Garcia Hernandez, and 

* Robertson sa^^s he was preparing to go to England (" History 
ol America," bk. ii.) 



Christopher Columbits, 55 

they put Columbus steadily through his proofs, 
with the objections to them, and solutions, like 
another Junto of Salamanca. They were both 
completely convinced, and Father Perez felt that 
it was time for prompt action. As the former 
confessor of the queen he felt that he could 
speak and be listened to, and so he wrote a letter 
to Isabella, but he was determined that it should 
be placed without delay in her royal hands, and 
they sent it accordmgly by the hands of Sebastian 
Rodriguez, an experienced sailor and a trusty en- 
voy. It found the queen at Santa Fe. In a fort- 
night Rodriguez returned with an invitation to 
the Franciscan father and a message of encour- 
agement to Columbus. The poor monk had no 
mule of his own to saddle, as Irving supposed, so 
Columbus had to borrow one for him. tie ob- 
tained the ear of the queen, and his pleading was 
irresistible. Columbus was summoned to court 
anew ; but now fate was hanging over Granada, 
and all things human might wait a few days to 
watch the death agony of a war that had lasted 
eight hundred years. In the midst of the re- 
joicings the queen kept her promise and sent for 
Columbus. She had full faith in him. She ac- 
cepted his project, but the terms had to be ar- 
ranged, and the evil genius of Columbus, the 
Bishop of Avila, was appointed to arrange them. 
Years of waiting had not changed the exalted 
views ot Columbus. He came with his Sibyl- 



56 



Christopher Columbus, 



line books once more. The price, to Talavera's 
narrow mind, was too liigh to pay. Isabella, 
against her better judgment, was persuaded to 
say so to Columbus, and he took his departure. 
Spain would not pay the price, and the price 
could not be altered, 




CHAPTER II. 



Columbus mounted his mule and rode from 
Santa Fe in the direction of Cordova, fully con- 
vinced at last that eighteen good years of life had 
been spent to no purpose, and that he would have 
to begin all over again at some other court the 
thankless task of suing for the loan of three little 
ships and a handful of men ; for this was really all 
that he had asked the Spanish sovereigns to pay 
him in advance. The haughty demands which 
the Bishop of Avila could not brook were contin- 
gent upon the success of a design which, if it were 
ever realized, would make Ferdinand and Isabel- 
la the debtors of their long-suffering petitioner 
beyond all their power to pay him back. A vice- 
royalty to him and his heirs in the event of great 
discoveries would not be deemed an excessive 
recompense, and in the event of slight success or 
failure would not press heavily upon the donors. 
The Duke of Medina Cell, as we have seen, was 
well able and quite willing to provide from his 
own private fleet the paltry apparatus needed, 
and it was certainly unlike Isabella's generous 
character or her usual line of conduct to request 



57 



58 Christopher Columbus, 

that nobleman to cede to the crown the glory of 
the expedition, and then to refuse after all to un- 
dertake it herself. Columbus, if he was human, 
must have included in one grand sweeping con- 
demnation court and courtiers, and learned men 
and selfish politicians ; and even Isabella could 
scarcely hope to escape censure. His feelings as 
he rode away would be worth the analysis, but the 
data are wanting. A man of his sanguine tem- 
perament would need all his Christian philosophy 
to bear up against such a disappointment. He 
never lost faith in his cause, for he felt that the 
cause was God's, in whose hands are the hearts 
of princes. 

Fortunately for Isabella, the Bishop of Avila 
was not the only counsellor at hand. Luis de St. 
Angel, Receiver of Ecclesiastical Revenues, and 
Alonzo de Quintanilla, Comptroller-General of 
Finance, at whose house Columbus had been stay- 
ing, were full of grief. St. Angel rushed into the 
presence of the queen, and, in the fervor of his 
zeal for Christendom and Spain, he even re- 
proached her for the unworthy part she was 
playing under evil dictation. Isabella thanked 
him for his plain speaking. Alonzo de Quintanilla 
supported the remonstrance. Father Juan Perez 
was in the queen's chapel close by on his knees 
before the Blessed Sacrament, praying with all 
his heart and soul that God, for the Five Sacred 
Wounds of Jesus, would vouchsafe to guide her 



Christopher Columbus » 59 

decision. Her eyes were opened. The thought 
of the vast interests at stake darted into her mind 
with the force of an inspiration, and her resolve 
was formed. No power on earth could change 
it then, not even her husband's unwillingness to 
move in the matter; for she was a sovereign in 
her own right, and as such, and for her own crown 
of Castile, she undertook the enterprise, and, as 
the war had drained the ro3^al coffers of Castile, 
she was ready to pledge her jewels to raise the 
funds required. However, money was a very 
small consideration at that stage of the proceed- 
ings. Ferdinand of Aragon agreed to lend to 
Isabella of Castile the sum required, and in due 
time was careful to exact repayment. An officer 
was sent in haste to overtake Columbus. When 
he came up with him at the bridge of Pinos, two 
leagues from Granada, his first summons failed to 
induce the fugitive to retrace his steps; but as 
soon as Columbus heard of Isabella's noble decla- 
ration, he surrendered at discretion. And well 
he might. She had set aside the verdict of the 
Junta, representing as it did the learning of Spain; 
she had rejected the advice of her confessor, to 
which she usually showed a ready deference ; she 
had acted against the opinion of Ferdinand, whose 
wishes at other times had for her the force of 
laws; and she deserved that her royal word, once 
given, should be trusted. Good Father Juan Pe- 
rez, now that his prayer had been so fully heard, 



6o Christopher Cohtmbus. 

fancied his work was done, and hurried back to 
his convent of La Rabida ; but it was only, as the 
event showed, to make himself scarcely less use- 
ful to Columbus by his business like co-operation 
at Palos de Moguer than by his valuable prayers 
at Santa Fe. 

Columbus was now almost another man. He 
was high in favor. Indeed, the queen gave him 
so warm a welcome that it was evident she wished 
to make amends for past neglect. No more time 
was taken up in haggling about terms. All that 
had been asked for was conceded without a word, 
and Isabella, with delicate thoughtfulness, grace- 
fully added to the more formal grant a personal 
favor which must have been particularly grateful 
to a sensitive and wounded spirit, appointing Don 
Diego one of the pages of honor to Prince Juan, a 
distinction coveted for their sons by the highest 
grandees of Spain."* 

The articles of the capitulation, as it was termed, 
were with all convenient despatch drawn up by 

* Fernando is not mentioned on this occasion, but his appoint- 
ment must have followed closely that of his half-brother, for both 
were introduced together at court by Don Bartholomew Colum- 
bus while their father was absent on his first voyage. In 1498, 
after the death of Prince Juan, Isabella took them both into her 
own service, and then at all events she was so far from showing 
that she considered Don Fernando in any sense inferior to his 
brother that, as it happened, she actually appointed the younger 
brother first, with one day's interval. It is manifest that in her 
mind no discredit attached itself to Fernando's origin. Had 
there been really any social disparity between the admiral's sons, 
both the etiquette of that punctilious court and the severity of 
Isabella's moral code would have compelled her to recognize it. 



' Christopher Colitmbtis. 6i 

the queen's secretary, and Ferdinand affixed his 
signature conjointly, according to the articles of 
marriage, but he took no further interest in the 
matter, and Isabella singly was the life and soul 
of the whole enterprise. She issued her orders 
for the necessary arrangements. It happened 
that the little seaport of Palos, which Columbus 
knew so well, had been for some misconduct con- 
demned to furnish to the crown one year's service 
of two caravels, armed and manned. Advantage 
was taken of this existing obligation, and the cara- 
vels were now required to be in readiness in ten 
days, and to be placed at the disposal of Colum- 
bus. This might be a saving of actual expense, 
but it was an unwise economy ; for it gave to 
what at the best would have been a sufficiently 
unpopular commission the character of a penal 
conscription, and this upon an occasion when 
volunteers were most desirable, and forced men 
were sure to prove dangerous and possibly alto- 
gether unmanageable. The royal mandate was 
read to the natives of Palos in the Church of St. 
George by the notary public, on the requisition 
of Columbus, who was accompanied, as a matter 
of course, by the Franciscan father-guardian. It 
was also read at Moguer. The authorities signi- 
fied their submission ; but Spanish seamen had 
wills of their own, and when they knew the na- 
ture of the service for which they were ordered 
to hold themselves in readiness, they showed ex- 



62 Christopher Columbus, 

treme repugnance to give in their names. Not 
even a royal order, or the promise of immunity 
from legal prosecution, and of four months' pay 
at a higher rate than usual, to be made in advance 
at the time of embarkation, could induce men to 
offer themselves for so mad a venture as a voyage 
due west into the '' Mare Tenebrosum." ^ They 
valued their lives, and these were not forfeit to 
the crown. In anything reasonable the}^ would 
obey their highnesses, but they would not be sent 
off on a fool's errand or agree to make up a for- 
lorn hope for anybody's asking. And these were 
not timid landsmen, but hardy sailors. 

The first proclamation was on May 23, 1492. 
On June 20 more peremptory orders were issued, 
empowering the magistrates of the coast of An- 
dalusia to press into the service at their discre- 
tion any Spanish ships with their crews. Juan 
de Penalosa was sent to enforce the execution 
with pains and penalties, and, acting upon his 
orders, he at once seized a vessel named the Pin- 
ta, joint property of two citizens of Palos, who 

" Omne i notum pro maznifico hahcUir. The gigantic bird, ** the 
roc," known to our childhood in the history of " Sinbad the 
Sailor," is seriously mentioned by a lawyer, Fernando de Rojas, 
in a preface to a book published in 1492. The roc, by popular 
belief, infested the Mare Tenebrosum, and had an amiable 
habit of pouncing down upon even large ships gone astray, and 
carrying them bodily off in its beak to the clouds for the amuse- 
ment of breaking them up with its talons and dropping them 
bit by bit, planks or men, into the awful abyss. Even grave 
writers seem not to knov/ how much to believe of tliese childish 
fictions. 



Christopher Colmnbus. 62, 

gave themselves up for lost, and cursed the Gen- 
oese adventurer. It was no easy matter to fit 
out the Pinta. Materials were not forthcoming ; 
ship-carpenters were opportunely indisposed ; 
every obstacle which ingenuity could devise was 
thrown in Peilalosa's way. He did not make 
happy progress. Three ships were wanted, and 
as yet he had but one. If it had not been for the 
active help of that first and firmest friend, the Fa- 
ther-Guardian of La Rabida, Columbus might 
have seen his cherished project fall through fin- 
ally, not for want of letters-patent, but for want 
of men. A Franciscan, by his vocation, is at home 
among the poor. Father Perez, sometimes with 
and sometimes without his friend, made his rounds 
among the towns-people of Palos. Both his posi- 
tion and his personal character made him wel- 
come and gave him influence. He maintained 
the feasibility of the voyage, and made light of 
imaginary terrors ; nor did he fail, friar as he was, 
and speaking to Catholics, to insinuate motives 
of a loftier kind than thirst for discovery or de- 
sire of profit. He was defending his own pro- 
found convictions all the time. He was thinking 
also of souls to be saved far away beyond that 
*' dark sea " w^hich barred them from the light 
of the Gospel. If he could not communicate to 
lesser souls the noble confidence he felt himself, 
at least he did much to lessen prejudice and soft- 
en down hostility ; and when glorious success 



64 Christopher Columbus, 

had crowned that westward voyage, his energetic 
efforts were gratefully remembered. 

One service rendered by Father Juan Perez in 
Palos was the introduction of Columbus to Mar- 
tin Alonzo Pinzon. The meeting would assured- 
1}^ have taken place in any case, but we may rea- 
sonably doubt, in the first place, wdiether the 
Pinzon family would have entered so warmly 
into the views of Columbus, and, in the second 
place, whether they would have been able to 
overcome the reluctance of uneducated sailors, 
if Father Perez had not brought his scientific 
reputation and his local popularity to the aid of 
the stranger. Peilalosa, with his royal warrant 
to impound ships and impress sailors, would soon 
have made Columbus an object of general execra- 
tion. The Pinzons might have shared the com- 
mon feeling, or might have had little power to 
allay it. It is not necessary to determine the 
exact value of the Franciscan's intervention, but 
there can be no doubt that he once again made 
himself very useful at a critical moment. 

The three brothers Pinzon, all experienced ma- 
riners, lived in the best house in Palos. Martin 
Alonzo, the eldest, had lately returned from 
Rome, with apparently some fresh information 
which predisposed him to favor the idea of Co- 
lumbus. He brought, or said he brought, a map 
given him by one of Innocent the Eighth's libra- 
rians, upon which an unnamed land was marked 



Christopher Cohtmbus. 65 

in the far west. Whether it be that some of the 
many floating ideas, such as had already arrived 
at some definiteness of conception in the brain of 
Father Juan Perez, had taken shape also to the 
mind of the Pope's librarian— or, by a still more 
simple h3^pothesis, that Paolo Toscanelli, who 
was a frequent visitor in Rome, had mentioned 
the speculations of Columbus to the librarian or 
his friends, and that the map was constructed 
from the ideas so communicated — it is in any 
case so easy to account for the existence of such 
a map at that time that it is a gratuitous imper- 
tinence to accuse, as Humboldt does,"^'" Pinzon 
and Columbus, and, therefore, though he does 
not name him, the inseparable Father Perez, of 
having concocted the story of the map to take in 
the simple sailors. There was no such theory at 
the time, and yet the map was much spoken of, 
and it is almost equally impossible to believe that 
a public secret of the kind could have been invio- 
lably kept, whether the accessory witnesses were 
accomplices or dupes. The Roman map would 
not be worth a passing mention here for its own 
sake. With it or without it, Pinzon was inclined to 
believe in land to the west. However, the abso- 

* Irving only remarks in a note : " Among other extravagan- 
cies, it was asserted that before the sovereigns accepted the pro- 
position of Columbus, Pinzon had prepared to g^o, at his own cost 
and risk, in two of his own ships, in search of lands in the west, 
of which he had some notice from papers found in the Papal li- 
brary at Rome " (bk. v. c, v.) 



6-3 Chi'istopher Coliunbits. 

lute groundlessness of Humboldt's supposition 
may teach his readers to be cautious when he 
elsewhere asperses the character of Columbus. 
Rome was by no means unconscious of what was 
taking place. Not her indifference to maritime 
discovery, but her unwarrantable interference, is 
the stereotyped complaint of modern writers."^ 

* Much shallow invective has been hurled at the heads of suc- 
cessive popes for their assignment to Christian princes of lands 
belonging to "infidels." Deeper thinkers may find that there is 
more in the matter than a contemptuous word can finish. It is, 
of course, unfair to take the question out of its historic context. 
The action of popes in the fifteenth century must not be consid- 
ered by reference to an altered state of things in the nineteenth 
century. A course of action not contrary to the natural law or the 
positive command of God may, by force of circumstances, be right 
at one epoch, wrong at another. In the fifteenth century the Gos- 
pel formed the theoretical basis of all national and social and do- 
mestic relations. Theoj-etically, it was admitted by all that the 
first duties of kings to their people, and of parents to their chil- 
dren, were to provide the means of salvation. Theoretically, 
eternal interests were supposed to outweigh all sublunary consi- 
derations. Again, in the fifteenth century the popes were by 
some considered the divinely-appointed guardians of the souls 
of all men, with the right, if not always the power, to force civil 
governments to do their duty to God. Even those who denied to 
the popes this semi-civil supremacy still unanimously lookedto 
them as arbitrators on a large scale. All Christian princes re- 
garded the Court of Rome as mainly concerned in the extension 
of the kingdom of Christ upon earth, and they accepted its coun- 
sel and expostulation without resentment, even when they op- 
posed its political action. Much that would be considered un- 
warrantable interference now was the normal course of things 
then. Autonomy is not nearly so definite a right as personal 
freedom, and its limits are less easy to determine. One man 
cannot be rightfully possessed by another man ; but one body 
of men can be rightfully governed by another body of men. 
Does the right of autonomy belong to men by territory, or by 
blood,or by accidental coalition? Are continents, islands (large or 
small),and peninsulas intended by Providence to be independent, 
or do mountain-chains and rivers suffice to mark out districts fitted 
for self-government ? Is autonomy the right of a family, or a class, 



Christopher Colinnbus, 6? 

Innocent the Eighth died nine days before Colum- 
bus started on his first voyage, and his epitaph 
speaks of the great interest he had taken in the 
proposal which he did not live to see accomplish- 
ed. He was himself a Genoese, and it is a tradi- 
tion in Rome that he had sent his benediction to 
Columbus, and Columbus speaks of his having en- 
joyed from the first the favor of the Holy See. 

Martin Alonzo Pinzon entered heartily into the 
scheme, and agreed to accompany Columbus and 
to provide a beautiful little caravel, the Nina 
(that is, '' The Little "), with lateen sails, belong- 
ing to Vincent Yaiicz Pinzon, the youngest of the 

or a race ? Does the right to choose include the right to change 
rulers? Or, finally, is the stcitus quo, no matter how it has been 
arrived at, no matter how much tyranny, how much misery, it 
involves, to be respected as the sacred ordinance of Heaven? 
Obviously there is large room for difference of opinion. Unless 
it be Uncharitably assumed that " infallibility" (for popes were as 
infallible then as now) includes the gift of prophecy, the rulers 
of the Chufch are not to be held accountable for the horrible ex- 
cesses of men who ought to have been Christians. Their inten- 
tions, judged by the ideas of those times, may have been purely 
benevolent. The savage inhabit ints of the newly-found coun- 
tries were either children, to whom no one attributes the right of 
self government, or they were men groaning Under the worst of 
all tyrannies, in the utter absence of the saving knowledge of 
Christ. If many Englishmen would approve of the idea of their 
taking the King of Ashantee's subjects under their protection, 
whether they liked it or not, and extending to them the blessings 
of English law, with immediate cessation of human hecatombs, 
they only advocate, with some slight alterations, the programme 
of the much-reviled popss. The difiference is that the Ashantees 
deal with bodies, and Satan only with unimportant souls ; but in 
the fifteenth century souls were quite as real as, and much more 
important than, bodies, and civil rulers, as we have said, consid- 
ered that the sali>atlot7 of their subjects not only concerned them, 
but was even their chief concern. 



68 Christopher Columbus, 

three brothers, who made himself famous in the 
sequel. Columbus had engaged to furnish an 
eighth part of the expenses, and the brothers 
Pinzon enabled him to fulfil his engagement. 
Public opinion now began to change. The 
township of Palos offered to Columbus an old, 
weather-beaten, but seaworthy vessel, large and 
heavy, very ill-adapted for the service. Both he 
and Father Perez thought it the part of wisdom 
to accept the offer, Columbus caused the vessel 
to be blessed, changed its name from La Gallega 
to La Santa Maria, and selected it for his own 
command. We are not to suppose that Colum- 
bus, in his anxiety to depart, went to sea in ves- 
sels which he considered unsafe. Caravels, which 
were only partially decked, running high at each 
end, were considered by him the best kind of ves- 
sel for his purposes, coasting included, which the 
ship-building of that date provided. He com- 
plained that the Santa Maria was too large and 
unwield}^ She had four masts, two square-rig- 
ged and two with lateen sails, and was decked 
from end to end. Her long-boat was thirty feet 
in length ; and although the attempt to establish 
her dimensions from this fact alone, by reference 
to modern ship-building proportions, is, in the 
altered state of navigation, decidedly unsatisfac- 
tory, we still have grounds for conjecturing that 
in size she would fairly represent one of our old 
ten-gun brigs» 



Christopher Columbus. 69 

The Santa Maria carried sixty-six persons, of 
whom not one came from Palos or Moguer. Di- 
ego de Arana, nephew of Columbus, sailed with 
him as Grand Alguazil of the armament, and the 
list of the drew contains some names known to 
fame. An Englishman and an Irishman were on 
board. 

Martin Alon^o Pinion, with his brother, Fran» 
cis Martin Pinzon, for a lieutenant, had command 
of the Pinta, which numbered thirty on board, all 
from that neighborhood except one. Even Gar- 
cia Hernandez, in spite of his close intimacy with 
Father Pere2, sailed as surgeon in the Pinta, not 
in the Santa Maria, so that there was evidently 
an arrangement in virtue of w^hich the men of the 
expedition were divided into those from Palos 
and Moguer and those from other places, Colum- 
bus commanding the latter division and the two 
brothers Pinzon the former. 

The N'ina, commanded by Vincent Yanez Pin- 
mn, carried the remainder of the Palos contin- 
gent, twenty-four souls. 

As the fated moment drew near, apprehension 
was sure to revive, even in resolute minds. Co- 
lumbus, we may be sure, harangued his men, and 
spoke of trust in Providence. Catholic sailors 
w^ould feel all the solemnity of the occasion, and 
would turn, as a matter of course, to the aids of 
religion. Columbus, Robertson sa3^s, "would 
not set out on an expedition so arduous, and of 



70 Christopher Columbus. 

which one great object was to extend the know- 
ledge of the Catholic faith, without imploring 
publicly the guidance and protection of Heaven. 
With this view he, together with all the persons 
tinder his command, marched in solemn proces- 
sion to the monastery of Rabida, After confess- 
ing their sins and obtaining absolution, they re- 
ceived the Holy Sacrament from the hands of 
the guardian, who joined his prayers to theirs 
for the success of an enterprise which he had 
so zealously patronized." * The convent chapel 
w^as dedicated to Our Lady. When he was on 
the point of retiring from Spain, Colum_bus went, 
as we have seen, to La Rabida on purpose to take 
his son Diego from the care of Father Juan Perez 
and place him with Fernando at Cordova. This 
intention had been interrupted by the prompt 
action of Father Perez when he wrote to Isabella. 
Now that he was again on the point of leaving 
Spain, he resumed his interrupted design, and 
sent Diego under convoy to Cordova, f having 
himself called there on his way from Santa Fe, 
Probably it was then that his wife's nephew, 

*" History of Ametica," bk . ii. 

f Martin Sanchez, a priest, and Rodriguez Catezudo were 
commissioned to see Diego safe to Cordova to the care of Dona 
Beatrix, not, as Irving (bk. ii. c. ix.) supposes, to sup^intend 
at Moguer his further education, in the special view of fitting 
him for presentation at court. Diego would certainly never 
have been removed from the good care of Father Juan at La 
Rabida to place him with a worthy ecclesiastic at Moguer, 
whether the object had been to improve his mind or to train him 
for life at the court. 



ChiHstophej' Cohujibus, 71 

Diego de Araila, made up his mind to undertake 
the voyage in his company. Having provided 
for his son's well-being in his absence, Columbus 
shut himself up in his "cell" to wait for a good 
east wind. He had previously spent the chief 
part of his time in the monastery, leaving the 
lesser details of arrangement to the Pinzons, who 
were in every way competent to undertake the 
direction, and who had, too large a stake in the 
enterprise to be suspected of negligence. Every- 
thing was ready, the baggage on board, and the 
signal flag flying. No one was allowed to sleep 
ashore except the admiral himself, and he was to 
be summoned as soon as the fair breeze should 
begin to blow. He was at this period a member 
of the Third Order of St. Francis, and it is pro- 
bable that he had only a short time previously 
been enrolled. He attended choir. His favorite 
book was the Gospel of St, John. We may well 
imagine that his own meditations would have 
had at such a time a tinge of sublimity. 

Robertson places the general communion of 
the ships' companies on the day before the de- 
parture. This is apparently incorrect, but in any 
case Columbus had not long to wait. Oviedo 
aflirms that he received communion on the very 
day on which he went to sea. He must have 
heard a very early Mass, for it was at three 
o'clock in the morning of the 3d of August that 
he was awakened by the joyful sound of the rust- 



'^2 Christopher Cohwtbzts, 

ling trees. Father Perez walked with him in the 
early morning into Palos, and a boat put off from 
the Santa Maria to receive him. The little town 
was soon astir with many breaking hearts. The 
parting of emigrants is sorrowful enough, but the 
parting at Palos before the first voyage into that 
old mysterious sea must have been to mothers 
and sisters still more full of anxious fear. Co- 
lumbus strained the good Franciscan Father to 
his breast and was soon on board. The royal 
ensign of the fleet, bearing the image of Christ 
crucified, replaced the signal flag. The other 
vessels carried less elaborate ensigns, on which 
was a green cross between the initials of the sov- 
ereigns. The 3d of August fell upon a Friday, 
and to Columbus Friday was ever a day of bless- 
ing. On Friday he left Palos, on Friday he re- 
turned to Palos, on Friday he landed in the New 
World. The luckiest voyage ever made began 
on Friday. A superstitious dread of the day of 
redemption beseems better the enemies than the 
friends of the Cross of Christ. 

Half an hour before sunrise Columbus gave the 
order to spread the sails in the name of Jesus,* 
and the three vessels dropped down the river and 
were soon out of sight of the people of Palos ; but 
when they emerged from the mouth of the Odiel, 

**' Y en el nombre de Jesus mando de splegar las velas ' 
(Oviedo y Valdez, " La Historia natural y general de las Indias," 
1. ii. c. V. fol. 6). 



Christopher Columbus. ']i^ 

they were visible from La Rabida for nearly 
three hours, and Father Juan then, if ever, must 
have been gazing out to sea from his observatory. 
The venerable Las Casas was a man whose 
sanctity was of a very practical kind. He had 
not a poetical temperament like Columbus, and 
could not in the least appreciate flights of fancy ; 
so, under the idea that he was doing good ser- 
vice, instead of multiplying copies of the journal 
of Columbus and securing the safe transmission 
of an original work of incalculable value, he de- 
tached the hard facts from the accompanying 
commentary, and a sort of log-book is the result. 
ILard facts to him were precious stones, and 
comments even by Columbus were tinsel setting. 
The journal has perished and only the compen- 
dium remains. The preamble of the journal, how- 
ever, is^extant,^^ and from it may be guessed what 
a treasure has been lost. It begins, " In Nouiiiie 
Domini Jesu Christie The expedition is described 
as a mission from the Catholic sovereigns to the 
Grand Khan, principally to devise the means of 
converting the nations of the far East.f He goes 
on to say : " I intend to write during this voy- 
age very punctually from day to day all that I 

* Irving, bk. iii. c. i. 

f It is not v/onderful that John the Second of Portugnl. con- 
sidering that all infidel countries eastward from Cape Bojador 
had been assigned by Pope Martin the Fifth to the crown of 
Portugal, regarded the discoveries of Columbus as touching 
unon his property. East and West, on a spherical v/orld, are 
relative terms and liable to be misunderstood. 



74 Christopher Columbus. 

may do and see and experience, as will hereafter 
be seen. Also, my sovereign princes, besides 
describing each night all that has occurred in 
the day, and in the day the navigation of the 
night, I propose to make a chart; . . . and upon 
the whole it will be essential that I should for- 
get sleep and attend closely to the navigation 
to accomplish these things, which will be a 
great labor." Nature will have her revenge, 
and even Columbus had to yield to sleep, but he 
did not do so with impunity. 

The great work was fairly begun. The expedi- 
tion was afloat, and that was saying much. So 
thought Columbus, but he also thought that very 
little was needed even then to ruin everything. 
If his men refused to saii forward, he would be at 
any time helpless. In many breasts the old re- 
luctance had been only smothered, not properly 
quenched, and the smouldenng fire of disaffection 
might burst into flames with a slight provocation. 
The Pinta on Monday ran up a signal of distress. 
The rudder was disabled. The same thing had 
occurred before in the course of the prepara- 
tions, and it was clearly a ruse of the owners, 
who were on board, to force a return. They were 
ready to sacrifice a part to save the whole. Mar- 
tin Alonzo Pinzon patched up the rudder tempo- 
rarily, and Columbus steered for the Canaries. 
He tried for three weeks to pick up another ves- 
sel, but, failing, had to content himself with refit- 



Christopher Columbus. 75 

ting the Piiita, The Nina was fresh rigged with 
square-sails. Danger followed danger. Three 
Portuguese caravels were in waiting at Ferro to 
bar further progress, and a vexatious calm set in, 
as if to give the crew time to contemplate an 
eruption of Teneriffe, which could only add to 
their agitation. The wind rose, and they soon 
left behind the Portuguese and the last trace of 
land. The hearts of the sailors sank within them. 
The helmsmen almost involuntarily kept shifting 
the course. It seemed too terrible to turn their 
backs dii'ectly upon Europe. Columbus did not 
dare to let them know the distance they had tra- 
versed, and he kept two reckonings, one correct 
and the other ostensible. The sequel showed the 
worldly wisdom of this contrivance. He tried 
also to keep the variation of the magnet from the 
observation of the pilots, for he knew they would 
be frightened by it ; but he could not keep it from 
them long. When the needle, pattern of fidelity, 
was no longer true to its pole, could they them- 
selves be chidden for faltering in their resolution ? 
The change of constellations helped to alarm 
them. All things were strange — a new earth and 
a new sky and new laws of nature. Columbus 
seemed to know no fear,* or only to fear the fears 
of his companions. A magnificent meteor filled 



* He says of himself in a letter to Alexander the Sixth in 1502: 
" La cual razon me descansa y hace que yo non tema peligros," 
etc. (Docum. diplom., n. 145). 



76 Christopher Columbus, 

him with adaiiration, them with terror. His trust 
was not in compass or constellations, but in the 
guiding hand of God and in a Star of the Sea 
shining from a higher heaven than eyes of the 
body could reach. The standard of the Cross 
was floating overhead to disconcert the spirits of 
darkness and to rectify all malign influences of 
the elements, and every evening the Ave Mans 
Stella sanctified those solitudes where never from 
creation's dawn the voice of man had sounded un- 
til then — 

" They were the first that ever burst 
Into that silent sea.'' 

The admiral shut himself up at stated times 
every day, to make his meditation and recite his 
office, like a Franciscan. He was pretty nearly 
all the remainder of the day and night at his sta- 
tion on the poop, keeping watch. The weather 
was charming, the trade- wind steady, and the 
progress rapid. The hearts of the wanderers 
sank within them. The fair wind began to be the 
chief of all their ocean terrors. They were driv- 
ing along before the breeze gaily to their doom ; 
for if the wind blew always from the east, they 
could never sail back. Already, towards the end 
of September, the crews were ripe for mutiny. 
Argument had been exhausted ; authority was 
little regarded. No effort w^as made to disguise 
the general discontent. Columbus held on his 
course. The wind shifted to the west, to the im- 



Christopher Colitmbtis. J J 

mense relief of all. Next day a calm ensued. The 
sea was thick with weeds, and again fancy was 
busy. They had arrived at the place of their 
doom. There they were to lie on the stagnant 
water, to wait for a cruel death. The surface did 
not long remain smooth ; great billows rose and 
fell, and the phantom of perpetual stagnation 
vanished, as the phantom of perpetual east wind 
had done. On the 25th of September, the Pinta 
being close to the Santa Maria, Martin Alonzo 
Pinzon, deceived by a cloud upon the horizon, 
cried out, '' Land ! I claim the prize." All his 
crew were shouting with joy ; the men of the 
Nina ran up the rigging for a better viev/, and 
confirmed the announcement. Columbus fell on 
his knees and intoned the " Gloria in Excelsis '* 
When the mistake was discovered, the revulsion 
of feeling was terrible. Signs of land for the next 
few days kept hope from absolutely dying; but 
the distance Avhich severed them from the world 
of human beings, ostensibly 580 leagues, really 
707 leagues, seemed to close against them all 
chances of return. They left the signs of land 
behind them, and began to think that they had 
passed some islands. 

Columbus himself shared the surmise, but he 
held obstinately on his course to the west, in 
spite of remonstrances and murmurs, and even 
of threats. The Pinzons felt their power, but, 
though they treated Columbus with little consi- 



78 Christopher Cohimbus. 

deration, they refrained from giving direct en- 
couragement to any overt act of insubordination. 
Fresh flights of birds seemed to indicate land 
more to the south, and, as Martin Alonzo Pinzon 
had already strongly urged a more southerly 
course, Columbus, on the 7th October, veered 
to west-southwest. On the loth October the 
suppressed mutiny broke out. Signs of land were 
declared delusive ; the voyage, it was said, was 
interminable. It seems certain from the history 
of Fernando, and the thing is in itself probable, 
that some of the mutineers were ready to proceed 
to all extremities, and that they had resolved to 
throw the refractory admiral overboard in the 
darkness, accounting as best they might for his 
disappearance, if he finally refused to sail back. 
It seems, on the other hand, that there is very 
slight foundation for the well-known story of the 
capitulation, by which Columbus bound himself 
to turn back if land was not sighted within three 
days. Las Casas, Fernando, Bernaldez (better 
known as the Curate of Los Palacios) do not 
mention it. It comes from Oviedo, who credu- 
lously accepted many statements injurious to Co- 
lumbus upon the worst possible testimony— name- 
ly, that of a sailor attached to the Pinzon interest. 
After Martin Alonzo's untimely death, his chil- 
dren certainly spared no pains to blacken the 
name of Columbus. This particular misstate- 
ment, which even Oviedo gives in a hesitating 



Christopher Columbus. 79 

tone, is quite worth contradicting-, for it detracts 
much from the heroism of the conduct of Colum- 
bus in what was, perhaps, the most trying mo- 
ment of all his life. 

He was at last deserted by every soul on the 
three ships. Martin Alonzo Pinzon had at length 
lost heart, and the three brothers joined the in- 
surgent crews, and added their angry demand to 
the tierce clamors for return. A moment's hesi- 
tation then would have put Columbus at their 
mercy. He stood his ground, and by the moral 
grandeur of his simple faith calmed the fierce 
storm of passion raging- round. There is some- 
thing bordering- on the marvellous in the power 
which he suddenly exerted. In the merely na- 
tural order, a calm, determined refusal is the 
wisest answer to an insolent demand ; but when 
one hundred and twenty exasperated men, under 
the influence of personal fear, in the strong in- 
stinct of self-preservation, are clamoring, as they 
imagine, for their own lives, to answer their 
demand with a cool non possinmts is about as 
brave as to take one's stand in a jungle unarmed 
to stare a tiger out of countenance ; and if the 
tiger, in the act of springing, yields to the con- 
trolling force of the human eye, and turns aside 
into the thicket, it is scarcely less wonderful 
than the meek submission of those angry men. 
Columbus, to their furious demand to steer them 
whence they came, quietly forbade all protestation 



8o Christopher Coliniihts, 

or entreaty, telling- them in so many words that 
remonstrance was useless, that he had started for 
the Indies, and go there he would by the help 
of our Lord. From that moment things grew 
brighter. Columbus had been tried like gold 
in the furnace, and he was not found wanting. 
" The Eternal God had given him strength." * 
Unmistakable signs of very near land dispelled 
all mutinous thoughts, and eager hope awoke in 
every breast. The hymn of Our Lady was never 
intermitted, and on the evening after the out- 
break, at the end of the prayers, Columbus de- 
livered a solemn discourse, bidding his hearers 
thank our Lord, who, in his mercy, had conduct- 
ed them safely across the " Mare Tenebrosum," 
and advising them for greater security to slacken' 
sail in the darkness, and (but they did not need 
the telling) to keep a vigilant look-out all night. 
He then retired till ten o'clock. 

About that time Columbus came on deck, and 
be immediately fancied he discerned a light mov- 
ing in front. He would not trust his eyes, and 
called his commissary of marine, Rodrigo San- 
chez, who confirmed the truth of the apparition. 
Before any further corroboration could be ob- 
tained, the light had disappeared. To Columbus 

* '* Los cuales todos k una voz estabnn determinados de se 
volver y alzarse haciendo contra el protestaciones, y el eterno 
Dios le dio esfuerzo y valor contra todos" (Jueves, 14 de he- 
brero). 



Christopher Columbus, 8i 

it was a sure proof of inhabited land. After mid- 
night they proceeded cautiously, the Pinta being 
considerably in advance. Every eye was strain- 
ing through the gloom, every heart throbbing. 
What must have been the feelings of the great 
and good man whose mind had schemed, whose 
single will had compassed, so sublime a deed ! 
Before him, wrapped in darkness, lay a world 
waiting discovery by the light of morning. His 
name was now a heritage of fame. No history of 
mankind could pass him by unnoticed. The me- 
mory of that night would live to the end of time. 
But it may be that all the while he was thanking 
Our Lady, ascribing all success to her, and ac- 
knowledging himself only an instrument in the 
hands of Providence, as he repeated to himself, 
perhaps, the words, ** Non nobis Domine, non no- 
bis, sed Nomini tuo da gloriam." At two ^ ^''- , 
by the clock on the Santa Maria, a flash came 
from the Pinta, followed by a loud report — the 
signal gun. It was no false alarm this time. Juan 
Rodriguez Bermejo, a sailor on the Pinta, had 
sighted land. Columbus, at the sound of the gun, 
fell on his knees and chanted the " Te Deum," his 
men responding with full hearts. Then they went 
wild with joy. The admiral ordered the sails to 
be furled, and the ships to be put in a state of de- 
fence, for it was impossible to say what the next 
daylight might reveal. His officers came crowd- 
ing round to offer their congratulations, and now, 



82 Christopher ColMinbtis. 

at last, their genuine reverence. They no longer 
blamed his obstinacy or spoke of his infatuation. 

It was Friday, the I2th of October, 1492. As 
the da}^ broke, the Spaniards saw before them a 
beautiful island covered with verdure. The wa- 
ters of a lake shone through the trees, which 
everywhere shut in the shore. At the sight of 
the white-winged monsters approaching from the 
sea, the natives fied to the woods and watched 
from their leafy covert the strange visitors, won- 
dering what would happen. Did they come from 
the skies or from some wicked world ? Did they 
bring a blessing or a curse ? The poor Indians 
could not answer. Can we ? Columbus intended 
to bear them good tidings; Rome intended to 
send them rich blessings ; but avarice and lust 
marred the fair work, and turned a message of 
peace into a cruel conquest, and made what 
might have been made an earthly paradise a 
land of hideous slavery. Baptized and instruct- 
ed, those gentle islanders would have made good 
Christians.* As it was, they were goaded into 
resistance, and taught to shrink from the thought 

* So thought Columbus: " Martes 6 de Novicmbre. Tengo 
por dicho, serenisimos Principes, que sabiendo la lengua dispu- 
esta suya personas devotas religiosas, que luego todos se torna- 
rian Cristianos ; y asi espero en nuestro Sefior que vuestras Alte- 
zas se determinarian d ello con mucha diligencia para tornar d 
la Iglesia tan grandes pueblos, y los convertiran, asi como han 
de=truido aquellos que no quisieron confesar el Padre, y el 
Hijo, y el Espiritu Santo" (Journal of Columbus, abridged by 
Las Casas). 



1.-^ 



Christopher Columbus. 83 

of going after death to the " white man's hea- 
ven." The tears of the Indians have been awfully 
avenged. Spain and Portugal have been cursed 
for their cruelty ; but the future was mercifully 
veiled on the day of which we speak. 

The ships had been brought to anchor. The 
lord-admiral, in his scarlet robe of state, pushed 
off in his boat, bearing in his own hands the royal 
ensign, and accompanied by the captains of the 
Pinta and the Nina in their own boats, and carry- 
ing their Hags. Springing to shore, Columbus 
sank upon his knees and kissed the ground three 
times, shedding tears of joy. All with him fol- 
lowed his example.^ Then, planting the standard 
of the Crucified, he took solemn possession of the 
island in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ for 
the crown of Castile under the name of San Sal- 
vador, f He ordered also a large wooden cross 
to be set up. The curiosity of the natives soon 
got the better of their fears, and they came from 
their hiding-places to adore the Spaniards, whose 
splendid dress and glittering armor on closer in- 
spection proved that they came from heaven. 
They were especially attracted to Columbus, 
who treated them with great kindness, and made 
many enquiries by signs, naturally enough, as 

* " Inginocchiati baciarono la terra tre volte piangendo di 
allegrezza. Ramusio. Delle navigation! e viaggi raccolte" (vol. 

f The Indian name was Guanahan6 ; the English name is Cat 
Island. 



84 Christopher Cohcmbus, 

Irving' suggests, interpreting their responsive 
signs by reference to his foregone conclusions. 
He called them Indians because he thousfht that 
their island was in the region of the East Indies. 
He understood them to speak of gold to be found 
in abundance to the south ; there, then, was the 
Island of Cipango. He understood them to speak 
of a great king, who was served in vessels of 
gold ; it must be the Great Khan. The island 
was soon explored. Among its natural advan- 
tages is noticed ''stone for building churches." 
The poor natives in all parts of it received the 
strangers with the most unsuspecting hospitality. 
Seven of them were easily induced to go with 
Columbus, and he seems to have distributed them 
among the three vessels. One of them deserted, 
but others were added from Cuba and St. Do- 
mingo. He designed to present them to their 
Catholic majesties to have them instructed in the 
faith, and then to send them back to their coun- 
try to help forward the work of conversion. 

When he sailed away from San Salvador the 
admiral at once found himself in an archipelago, 
pleasantly embarrassed by the multitude of isl- 
ands offered to his choice. He steered for the 
largest, which he named Santa Maria de la Con- 
cepcion. Another island he named Fernandina, 
another Isabella. Everywhere he treated the na- 
tives with studious kindness, repressing the least 
attempt at harshness on the part of his men, and 



Christopher Columbus. 85 

he succeeded in inspiring complete confidence. 
The faith was his first thought, but gold was the 
second. In every place he touched he enquired 
where gold was to be found ; he had a keen eye to 
every little ornament of gold ; he candidly announc- 
ed that he should only stop where there was a 
prospect of collecting gold ; and he adds that, 
with the help of our Lord, he felt sure of success 
in his search for gold. It is a curious manifesta- 
tion of character. Love of gold is not one of 
the usual signs of sanctity. Columbus wanted 
gold for two great reasons : first, to enhance the 
importance of the discoveries, for all his loftiest 
dreams depended for their realization, as he in 
his ignorance of the future fondly thought, upon 
causing a stream of European enterprise to flow 
into the dominions of the Great Khan ; secondly, 
to amass treasure for the second great object of 
his life — the recovery of the Holy Sepulchre '^ ; an 

* Columbus in his will says :'*... As at the time that I un- 
dertook to set out upon the discoveries of the Indies, it was with 
the intention of supplicating the king and queen our lords that 
whatever moneys should be derived from the said Indies should 
be invested in the conquest of Jerusalem, and, as I did so sup- 
plicate them, if they do this it v/ill be v/ell ; if not, at all events 
the said Diego, or such person as may succeed him in this trust, 
to collect together all the money he can, and accompany the king 
our lord, should he go to the conquest of Jerusalem, or else go 
there himself with all the force he can command. . . ." Colum- 
bus tells us in his journal, under date the 26th of December, 
14 )2, that he had in a private audience communicated to the sov- 
ereigns his designs upon Jerusalem, and that they seemed amus- 
ed and signified that even without his Indian revenues they were 
well disposed to do what they could in such a cause. He at least 
was in tremendous earnest. We have in this deeply-cherished 



86 Christopher Columbus, 

object early contemplated and never abandoned. 
From Isabella Columbus stood across to Cuba, 
convinced that it must be the Island of Cipango. 
Martin Alonzo Pinzon succeeded in persuading- 
him that it was the mainland of Asia. If it was 
Asia, then the Grand Khan was accessible. He 
understood the Indians to speak of a great king, 
four days' journey distant, and he sent off two 
ambassadors, one of whom was Luiz de Torres, 
whose knowledge of Arabic might help him with 
the Great Khan or some of his vassal sovereigns. 
Two Indian interpreters made up the party. 
They only found a village of fifty huts, but the 
natives everywhere greeted them kindly.* De- 
ceived by mistaken interpretations, he deserted 
his northwest course, which would soon have 
proved Cuba to be an island, and, still dreaming 
of gold, coasted in the opposite direction. He 
named the beautiful archipelago near Puerto del 
Principe, at the east of Cuba, '* Sea of our Lady." 
As he went alons: he erected crosses and scatter- 

project the key to his lofty demands of viceregal dignity and a 
tenth of all the profits — an explanation of his eager search for 
gold. All his designs had a princely character. He wanted to 
be able to fit out an expedition of fifty thousand men to fight the 
infidel on his own account, in case Ferdinand should look cold- 
ly on the project. His resolution was already formed when 
he was treating with King John of Portugal, and there can be no 
doubt that the idea hnd been suggested by his conflicts with the 
Mussulmans on the Mediterranean, and it was quite in the spirit 
of those times. 

* They witnessed on their return journey a curious practice 
since known as ' smoking." 



Christopher Columbus, %"] 

ed pious names, very few of which have come 
down to our times. 

As Columbus was finishing the coasting of the 
isle of Cuba, the Pinta cruelly deserted him. Mar- 
tin Alonzo tried to make out afterwards that the 
separation was accidental, but there is no doubt 
that he yielded to temptation, and went away to 
find gold for himself. With a part of his profits 
he bribed his crew to give a false account. He 
also made slaves of some of the natives, intending 
to sell them ; but Columbus exerted his authori- 
ty, and forced him, not without high words pass- 
ing between them, to send them home with pre- 
sents. Soon after the disappearance of the Pinta, 
his own ship, whilst he was asleep, was wrecked 
beyond reconstruction on the coast of Hispaniola, 
now called St. Domingo, or Hayti, whither he 
passed from Cuba. His situation was now ex- 
tremely critical. One caravel, the Nina, not of 
strong build, was all that remained. Martin 
Alonzo had heard of the shipwreck from the na- 
tives, but, instead of hastening to the aid of his 
commander, continued to push his private traffic, 
which he found very lucrative. Some of the 
Spaniards, Diego de Arana among them, at their 
own request, were left in Hispaniola, in number 
thirty-eight, and a rude fortress, sufficient to pro- 
tect them from the warlike Caribs of Porto Rico, 
the terror of the gentler tribes, was formed from 
the wreck of the Santa Maria. The unhappy 



88 Christopher Cohunbtcs, 

little colony was christened La Navidad. Co- 
lumbus at parting gave them much admirable 
counsel, which they in their folly forgot. The 
leavetaking was a sore trial both to those who 
went and to those who stayed, although they did 
not know that it was final. It was not till some 
days after leaving Navidad that Columbus fell in 
with the truant Pinzon. Though he prudently 
suppressed the signs of his just indignation, he 
could feel no further confidence in the man who 
might at any time, under renewed temptation, 
repeat a perfidy which he did not seem to regret. 
That one disloyal act had ruined a campaign. 
The only safe course now was to make the best 
way back to Spain, and leave further discoveries 
for future expeditions. The resolve was a painful 
one, but it was more important to secure the dis- 
coveries already made than to augment them. 
For some days the vessels coasted eastward, and 
the first blood was spilt just before leaving His- 
paniola. The Indians who belonged to the war- 
like tribe of Ciguayans were the aggressors, but 
the encounter caused much grief to Columbus. 

New dangers were at hand. On the voyage 
home, which was finally determined about the 20th 
of January, 1493, the sea was as tempestuous as 
it had before been tranquil. Martin Alonzo Pin- 
zon, this time most unwillingly, was separated by 
stress of weather, and Columbus feared that the 
Pinta had gone dovv-n. The Nifia, on v/hich all 



Christopher Colti7nbus, 89 

his hopes depended, was utterly unfit to do battle 
with the angry billows of the Atlantic, and Co- 
lumbus thought it could never live through so 
wild a storm. His agony of mind was very great : 
*' I could have supported this evil fortune with 
less grief had my person alone been in jeopardy, 
since I am a debtor for my life to the Supreme 
Creator, and have at other times been within a 
step of death. But it was a cause of infinite sor- 
row and trouble to think that after having been 
illuminated from on high with faith and certainty 
to undertake this enterprise, after having victori- 
ously achieved it, and when on the point of con- 
vincing my opponents and securing to your high- 
nesses great glory and vast increase of dominions, 
it should please the Divine Majesty to defeat all 
by my death." * He adds that he deeply felt for 
those for whose death he was responsible. Many 
vows were made to Our Blessed Lady to perform 
penitential pilgrimages, and the Nina weathered 
one storm after another. The reception of the 
tempest-tossed Spaniards in St. Mary's of the 
Azores by the Christian Portuguese was in strange 
contrast to the generous conduct of the poor 
*' savages " of Hispaniola when the Santa Maria 
was wrecked on their coast. The Portuguese 
governor, alleging royal orders, sought to de- 
tain them as his prisoners ; but though he spoke 

* Trvinpr, bk. v. c. ii. 



90 Christopher Cohnnbus, 

with lofty contempt of Ferdinand and Isabella, 
the cringing sycophant found it convenient to 
allow his guests to depart. The pitiless storm 
broke upon them again, and pursued the little 
half- decked caravel with ever-increasing fury, till, 
kept afloat by a sort of miracle, it staggered into 
harbor at the mouth of the Tagus. Columbus 
did not like the situation, but no choice was 
given. He sent a message immediately to the 
Spanish sovereigns, and another to the King of 
Portugal. Crowds came to look at him and his 
Indians. He was treated from the first with 
marked respect. The king invited him to court, 
and though he must have b"een tortured by re- 
morse when he thought of all that he had allowed 
to slip from his grasp, he did not permit Colum- 
bus to feel any effects of his displeasure, but con- 
gratulated him kindly, and gave him many marks 
of his esteem. He offered to escort him overland 
to Spain, but the storm had now passed, and Co- 
lumbus preferred to continue the voyage. He 
ran into Palos on the 15th of March, 1493. Great 
was the excitement in the little town. The inha- 
bitants had been gradually settling down into 
sombre resignation, and scarcely dared to think 
of the terrible fate to which so many who were 
dear to them had been consigned ; and now when 
they saw their own little caravel the Nifia sailing 
up the Odiel they were almost as much taken by 
surprise as the poor Indians of San Salvador had 



Christopher Columbus. 91 

been. The bells were ringing, and all Palos came 
to the river-side to welcome back friends and re- 
latives, as if they had risen from the dead, and to 
hear the tale of wonder. 

By a strange accident, a few hours later, before 
the first burst of enthusiastic welcome had sub- 
sided, while the bells were still ringing to tell the 
country round, and the admiral was receiving 
fresh felicitations every moment, the Pinta, well 
known in Palos, stood up the river and cast 
anchor by the side of the Nina. Martin Alonzo 
was not on board. The Pinta had been driven 
by the gale into the Bay of Bisca}^ and from 
Bayonne Pinzon had despatched a letter to the 
Spanish sovereigns, arrogating to himself all the 
merit of the discoveries, for he made quite sure 
that the poor little Nina had perished in the 
storm. His own crew would not contradict his 
statement, he thought, for their interests were 
identified v/ith his, and dead men tell no tales. 
The Niha^ lyii^g" ofi" Palos, was hidden by the bend 
in the river, and it was only at the last moment, 
when he was almost in the act of landing, that 
Martin Alonzo Pinzon saw the Nina riding at 
anchor with the admiral's flag at the masthead. 
He had come to reap a harvest of glory in his 
native place, while he waited for the royal an- 
swer summoning him to court. Never was ap- 
plicant for royal favor so crestfallen since Aman 
made over his honors to Mardocheus and was 



92 Christopher ColiDubiis, 

hanged in his stead. The poor man crept over 
the side of his vessel, made off in his boat as fast 
as he could, and kept out of his sight till Colum- 
bus left Palos. Then he made his way silently 
home, to die very soon of a broken heart. Irving's 
appreciation of his character is certainly the 
right one. It was not fear of any punishment 
which Columbus might inflict, but a self accusing 
conscience which made him shrink from public 
notice. He had enough greatness of soul to feel 
the full shame of his own defection. 

The Pinta and Nifia had between them brought 
back every man belonging to Palos who had 
joined the enterprise. Of the thirty-eight who 
stayed at Navidad, not one was from Palos. Only 
one man, an Indian, had died on the voyage. 
The general exultation was not sullied, as the 
joy of victory invariably is, by private grief. 

Not all the congratulations that pressed in upon 
him, or all the anticipations of higher glory in a 
wider sphere, could make the faithful servant of 
Mary forget the vows pronounced in the hour of 
his deep distress. One of these was to go with all 
his men of the Nina in procession, in penitential 
garb, to the nearest shrine of Our Lady, after land- 
ing. He had made the attempt to keep the vow 
when he landed in the Azores, but had been pre- 
vented by the hostile interference of the Portu- 
guese governor. He then reserved its fulfilment 
for the final landing, and .so it happened that the 



Christopher Columbus. 93 

procession marched to the Convent of La Rabida, 
and it fell to good Father Juan Perez de Marche- 
na to say the Mass of Thanksgiving-. The men 
were then permitted to rejoin their families, and 
each one must have been at once a hero on his 
own account, the centre of a circle of admiring 
friends who hung with rapt attention on his 
words as he delivered his oracular account of the 
cruise. Columbus naturally fell back upon La 
Rabida. His ''family" lived there, for he was a 
son of St. Francis. The pious daydreams of Fa- 
ther Perez had found indeed their fulfilment, and 
there really were in the far West nations to be 
evangelized. The cross had already been plant- 
ed there, but that was only the beginning of the 
beginning. It was not enough to find a new 
world. Grave responsibilities devolved upon 
the finder. Columbus could now speak and be 
listened to. Kings and popes would value his 
advice, perhaps shape their conduct upon it. 
The destinies of millions of immortal souls 
were delivered to his keeping. In that convent 
once already a more important junta had been 
held than that of Salamanca, and now the monk 
and the admiral laid their heads together again 
to devise great things. Columbus in his cell 
supplemented by a full narrative the brief despatch 
sent from the Tagus, and counselled Isabella to 
come to terms Avith the Holy See, suggesting a 
line of demarcation between the East, which be- 



94 Christopher Columbus, 

longed to Portugal, and the West, which ought 
to belong to Spain. It is easy to sneer at the 
'* sage device " * of the Pope. " It seems never 
to have occurred to the pontifF,'' says Washington 
Irving, ** that by pushing their opposite careers 
of discovery they might some day or other come 
again in collision and renew the question of ter- 
ritorial right at the antipodes/'f 

If it had occurred to the Pope, he might have 
also had some light from heaven to know that 
before the collision of Spaniards rounding the 
world to the west and Portuguese to the east 
took place at the antipodes, England might have 
something to say to lines of demarcation. It was 
the part of wisdom to deal with the difficulty as it 
presented itself, and seldom has a vast interna- 
tional problem been so trenchantly solved. :j: 

*Bk. V. c.ix. f Bk. V. c. viii. 

:{: Columbus proposed and Pope Alexander the Sixth (of un- 
happy memory) immediately adopted as the Line of Demarcation 
between the future dominions of the two great maritime powers 
a meridian drawn one hundred leagues to the west of the Azores 
and Cape de Verde Islands, measured from a point half way be- 
tween the two groups. The Bull of the 4th of May, 1493, enacts 
that on the said line being drawn, the Spaniards shall be en- 
titled to all the land to the west and south : Omnes insulas et ter-- 
ras Jirmas inventa^ et inveniendas^ detectas et degendas, versus occi- 
dentem et mejidiem, fabricando et constituendo uuam lincam a Polo 
Arctico^ scilicet septentrioiie, ad Polum Antarciicum, scilicet meridiein. 
The words " to the south " are certainly a curious addition, but 
Prescott puts his own interpretation upon the sentence when he 
says, very unnecessarily, " A point south of the meridian is some- 
thing new in geometry (" Ferdinand and Isabella," vol. ii. part i. 
c. vii.), for the actual words are not " south of the meridian." If 
accuracy is intended, a certain number of leagues (an absolute 
term), measured westward, would represent a different number of 



Christopher Columbus, 95 

The penitential procession was only one of 
many vows which had been made in that long 
series of terrible storms. Out of four other vows 
proposed to the acceptance of all on board the 
Niiia, three had by lot fallen to Columbus him- 
self. * They involved a journey to Santa Maria 
de Guadalupe, where he promised the monks to 
call one of his islands after their convent, another 
to Santa Clara at Moguer, where he spent 
the night before the Blessed Sacrament, and a 
third to Santa Maria de la Ceuta in Huelva. 

degrees (a variable term) according to the latitude along which 
they were counted, and thus the explicit mention of the meridian 
involves the implicit allusion to the line of latitude, and the Pope 
no doubt meant to speak of land lying westward from the 
meridian and southward from the mean latitude of the Azores 
and Cape de Verde Islands. The real difficulty of the passage 
is to explain why the grant was restricted to the south. Perhaps 
it was because Columbus was convinced that all the west and 
north belonged to the Grand Khan ; perhaps it was because the 
Pope had a prophetic glimpse of Pilgrim Fathers and United 
States. Whatever conclusion may be thence deduced, it is a fact 
which has not been noticed before, and yet deserves notice, that 
the Papal Line of Demarcation is the only meridian that en- 
counters no land between the Arctic and Antarctic circles. If it 
was not a providential arrangement, it was a very remarkable 
guess. The Portuguese complained that they had not enough 
sea-room for prosecuting their voyages east and south^ and Spain, 
thinking that the exact position of an imaginary line drawn at 
haphazard on the ocean between the two continents was not 
worth fighting about, instead of supporting the Pope, r/hom no 
representations could induce io recede from the assigned hun- 
dred leagues, kindly of her own accord came into the view of 
Portugaf, and agreed at Tordesillas, on the 7th of June, 1494, to 
push back the meridian to the distance of three hundred and 
seventy leagues west of the Cape de Verde Islands. Spain by 
this self denying ordinance calmly and quite unintentionally 
ceded Brazil to Portugal. 

* There was something singular in the recurrence of this cir- 
cumstance. Irving, *' Life of Columbus," bk, v. c. iv. 



96 Christopher Columbus, 

Then he received Holy Communion, after eight 
months' privation. He remained a few days with 
Father Perez, and then went to Seville, to wait for 
the answer of the king and queen. It came, ad- 
dressed '* To Don Christopher Columbus, our 
Admiral of the Ocean Sea, Viceroy and Governor 
of the Islands discovered in the Indies." He was 
invited to proceed as soon as possible to Barcelo- 
na. The journey was a triumphal procession all 
the way. He had summoned his sailors from 
Palos to share the honors, and as by that time all 
the country had heard of the grand discovery, 
crowds flocked along the route to tender their 
respect to the great man as he passed. The 
Indians whom he carried with him were objects 
of special interest, and a monster iguana, harmless 
enough even when alive, but looking very dia- 
bolical even when stuffed, was an object of min- 
gled wonder and fear. 

The enthusiasm of the people was a suggestion 
to the court, and a reception in the grandest style 
of grandiose Spanish ceremonial was carefully 
prepared. As he approached the town he was 
met by a noble escort of young cavaliers and a 
vast surging throng of citizens. He was himself 
on horseback, and seemed by his stately bearing 
and commanding presence fit to be the central 
figure of this almost Roman triumph. At the 
palace the great hall of audience had been thrown 
open. A seat splendidly adorned was placed 



Christopher Cohtmbus, 97 

close in front of the two royal thrones, which sur- 
passed their usual magnificence. The sovereigns 
were already seated, waiting for Columbus. 
When he approached they rose to greet him. In 
vain he tried to kneel and kiss their hands. Not 
till he was seated would they resume their seats. 
Then they demanded his narrative, and with 
charming modesty and self-possession he told 
them of their new dominions. We do not possess 
the words of his discourse, but when he finished 
the king and queen, with all the vast multitude 
present, fell upon their knees and thanked God 
for the mighty deeds of Christopher Columbus. 




CHAPTER Iir. 



None spoke more loudly the praises of ttie man 
whom the court and the nation agreed to honor 
than those who had mocked him in his distress, 
when a kind word would have reached his heart 
and been remembered. Columbus knew the 
value of their protestations of good will. The 
Dominican Father, Diego de Deza, who had 
pleaded his cause at Salamanca, shared with 
Father Juan Perez his undying gratitude ; but he 
was well assured that the base spirits who, after 
trying to crush him in his poverty, now came to 
flatter him in his prosperity would desert him 
again if he ever needed their assistance. His 
enemies hitherto had done nothing worse than 
waste his time and health and strength, and delay 
his work. It was now to be their part to ruin 
his benevolent schemes, to shorten his life, and 
injure his renown. 

The active vigilance and continual anxiety of 
eight eventful months must have made repose 
almost a necessity. There was indeed no time to 
lose, for wasted years had made all that might 
yet remain of life very precious. But it seems 

98 



Christopher Columbus. 99 

that Columbus did actually contemplate a flying 
visit to Rome, to tell with his own lips the story 
of his voyage to the Vicar of Jesus Christ, to 
whom, in the truthful judgment of those days, the 
discovery of new races of men was a matter of 
more vital interest and grave concern than even 
to Ferdinand and Isabella, or to John the Second. 
A journey from Rome to Genoa to see old Do- 
menico, who was yet alive, would have been in 
the natural course of things. If any such design 
had been formed, it had to be set aside, for the 
threatening attitude of Portugal made even a 
short delay unwise. King John the Second 
(although, in spite of wicked advice, he had not 
molested Columbus when he had him in his power) 
was fully determined to secure for himself some 
portion of the Western world ; and it seemed 
likely, by the reports v/hich reached the court of 
Spain, that he would solve the diplomatic diffi- 
culty by fitting out an expedition without further 
ceremony. Columbus was ordered to push the 
preparations for a second voyage. Instead of 
visiting his aged father, he sent an affectionate 
message, begging at the same time that his bro- 
ther James might be allowed to join him in Spain. 
The young man accordingly passed straight from 
the wool-comber's shop to the Spanish court, 
and became Don Diego Colon. His first public 
act was to stand godfather to one of the Indians, 
who received his name. King Ferdinand, Prince 



loo Christopher Columbus. 

Juan, and the first noblemen of Spain were his 
associates in this pious work. 

The sovereigns issued their instructions, and 
placed the fitting out of the fleet and the manage- 
ment of Indian affairs under the superintendence 
of Juan Rodriguez de Fonseca, Archdeacon of 
Seville, who held the administration for thirty, 
years. The choice was unfortunate. Francis Pine- 
lo was made treasurer, and Juan de Soria comp- 
troller. The admiral was directed to establish a 
similar office in Hispaniola. Twelve priests were 
chosen to accompany the expedition, under the 
direction of the Benedictine Father Boil. 

The appointment of this worldly-minded monk 
had no blessing of Heaven upon it, and, as it now 
seems, no authorization from Rome. It was ap- 
parently a culpable error on the part of Ferdi- 
nand, the true history of which never came to 
light till 1 85 1.* The sterility of these first mis- 
sionaries to the New World is no longer sur- 
prising. Father Bernard Boil, the Benedictine, 
who went with Columbus on his second voyage, 
was well known at the court of Aragon, and 
highly esteemed for skilful management of busi- 
ness. Ferdinand sent his name to Rome, praying 
that the spiritual interests of the expedition might 
be confided to his care. But the Holy Father 
knew that Columbus was deeply attached to the 

* Roselly de Lorgues, *' Christophe Colcmb," t. i. p. 509. 



Christopher Columbus, loi 

Franciscans ; so, setting aside the king's nominee, 
he appointed, it seems, a Franciscan Father of the 
same name. ^ When the bull arrived, bearing 
the address, Dilccto filio Bernardo Boyl fratri 
ordinis niinorwn^ Vicario dicti ordinis in Hispani- 
arum regnis, Ferdinand seems to have thought 
that the Holy Father had made a mistake, and 
that although Father Bernard Boyl was styled a 
friar minor, he must surely be that Bernard Boil 
for whom solemn application had been made. 
He did not feel quite certain about his interpreta- 
tion, but it would never do to delay the departure 
of the fleet till a rectification could be procured 
from Rome. He therefore persuaded himself 
that he could with safe conscience take the benefit 
of the doubt, for after all he was doing very little 
violence to the document by changing the title of 
the monk and one letter of his name, and it could 
not matter much in point of fact, he thought, 
whether one saintly order or another had to pro- 
vide a vicar-apostolic. Having thus forced his 
conscience to agree with his inclination, he sup- 
pressed the bull, for it was not impossible that 
theologians might attach more value to what the 
Pope had actually said than to what the king 
thought the Pope had intended to say. 

Father Boil, the Benedictine, received due 

* The Benedictine Father's name is generally given as Boll, 
but at the court it was written Buil. The Frinc'scan Father's 
name was written Boyl. 



I02 Christopher Columbus. 

notice of the arrival of the bull confirming the 
king's nomination, but the document itself was 
retained by the king, for fear, it was alleged, of 
exposing it to unnecessary risk. Later it vanish- 
ed altogether, and is not to be found in the col- 
lection of diplomatic papers published by the 
Spanish Government. The original has been 
faithfully preserved in the archives of the Vati- 
can.* 

The fleet was made up of seventeen vessels- 
three large carracks and fourteen caravels. Great 
activity was displayed in furnishing, provisioning, 
and arming the ships, and in selecting suitable 
crews from the crowd of volunteers of all condi- 
tions who pressed forward to demand admission. 
Columbus stayed in Barcelona till the 28th of 
May, receiving continual proofs of the complete 
confidence which Isabella placed in his judgment ; 
and the solemn instructions delivered to him by 
the sovereigns to guide him in his government of 
the colonies were really nothing but his own sug- 
gestions adopted, without an amendment or an 
addition, and ratified by royal authority. He was 
named Captain-General of the Fleet of the Indies, 
and received authority for the direct appointment 

* It may have been that the similarity of the names was the 
original cause of the error, though not in the manner which Fer- 
dinand supposed. Alexander the Sixth might have been willing 
to appear to make a mistake in his appointment of the friar 
minor, for this wooild save him from the unpleasantness of di- 
rectly rejecting the king's nominee. 



Christopher Columbus. 103 

of all the officers of the new Government.* The 
royal seal was committed to him to be used at his 
discretion, and the articles agreed upon at Santa 
Fe were solemnly confirmed. The queen showed 
great solicitude for all that concerned his personal 
comfort, and required that the greatest deference 
should be paid to all his wishes. She provided 
generously for his expenses : wherever he went 
he was to^ have free lodging for himself and five 
servants, and free transport for his baggage. 
Fonseca and Soria thought the queen was going 
a little too far, and they quietly disobeyed her in- 
junctions, treating some of the admiral's demands 
with contempt. They drew down upon them- 
selves a severe reprimand, which they never for- 
gave. Fonseca had ample opportunity to make 
Columbus feel the full weight of his vengeance.f 

* When, acting upon this provision, he made his brother 
Bartholomew Lieutenant-Governor, not because he was his bro- 
ther, but because he was the only man fit for the office, Ferdinand 
was much displeased that so high a dignity had been conferred 
without reference to the crown (Irving, bk. viii. c. i. and c. ix ) 

f This man seems to have deserved the character given to him 
by Irving : " He must undoubtedly have possessed talents for 
business, to ensure him such perpetuity of office ; but he was 
malignant and vindictive, and in the gratification of his private 
resentments not only heaped wrongs and sorrows upon the most 
illustrious of the early discoverers, but frequently impeded the 
progress of their enterprises, to the great detriment of the crown. 
This he was enabled to do privately and securely by his official 
situation. His perfidious conduct is repeatedly alluded to, but 
in guarded terms, by contemporary writers of weight and credit, 
such as the curate of Los Palacios and the Bishop Las Casas ; 
but they evidently were fearful of expressing the fulness of their 
feelings. Subsequent Spanish historians, always more or less 
controlled by ecclesiastical supervision, have likewise dealt too 



I04 Christopher Columbus. 

During the admiral's stay in Barcelona the prize 
for the first sight of land was adjudged to him, 
because he had descried the moving light upon 
the shore. It is said that Juan Bermejo, the 
sailor on the Pinta who first descried the coast 
line, was so vexed at this decision that he went 
over to Africa and turned Mohammedan; but the 
claim of Columbus seems to have been a fair sub- 
ject of discussion, and if the commissioners gave 
him their verdict, it is unjust to accuse him of a 
want of generosity in accepting their judgment, 
which he felt to be the true one ; for, as we have 
seen, the moving light had carried certainty at 
once to his own mind. Isabella was careful to 
provide Father Boil and his brethren with all 
things needful for the efficient discharge of their 
sacred duties, and she repeatedly commended her 
dear Indians to the protection of Columbus, and 
ordered him to punish with severity any Spaniards 
who should injure them. The vicar-apostolic 
at this time was a sincere admirer of Columbus. 

The equipment of the fleet, under the active 
encouragement of the queen, was conceived in 
a large spirit, and carried out vigorously. The 

favorably with this base-minded man " (" Life of Columbus," bk. 
V. c. viii.) M. de Lorgues traces the promotion of this un- 
worthy bishop through the successive sees of Badajos, Cordova, 
Palencia, and Burgos, to the archbishopric of Rosano, and main- 
tains that he owed his elevation to the favor of Ferdinand, in de- 
ference to whom Isabella seems in this instance to have remitted 
something of her usual vigilance (" Chnstophe Colomb," t. i. p. 
536). 



Christopher Columbus, 105 

event proved that Soria was not above the temp- 
tation of profiting by fraudulent contracts. The 
outfit included domestic animals, agricultural im- 
plements, grain, lime, bricks, iron, and a large 
supply of glass ornaments. Horses, destined to 
play an imporjant part in the Spanish conquest of 
America, were carefully selected ; munitions of 
war were of course not forgotten. The arque- 
buse was not yet a very efficient weapon, but 
though crossbows and lances were considered 
more really useful, firearms and artillery, so well 
calculated to strike terror into savages, could not 
be omitted. The number of men was at first fixed 
at one thousand, but an extension to the number 
of twelve hundred was permitted, and at the last 
moment about three hundred more contrived to 
stow themselves away out of sight, so that about 
fifteen hundred eventually sailed. Care had been 
taken to form an active corps of engineers and 
artisans. 

There is reason to think that another priest, 
not included in Father Boil's company of ecclesi- 
astics, was sent out by the queen as her astrono- 
mer ro3^al ; and though Washington Irving is si- 
lent on the subject, this was no less a man than 
Father Juan Perez, the guardian of La Rabida. 
M. de Lorgues ^ makes it appear very probable 
that here al»so similarity of names has led to a 

* " Christophe Colomb," i. p. 419. 



io6 Christopher Columbus, 

mistake, and that Father Perez not only accom- 
panied Columbus on his second voyage, but also 
was, as he deserved to be, the first priest who set 
foot in the New World. Twenty days before the 
departure of the expedition Isabella sent back to 
Columbus that much-regretted journal which Las 
Casas was content to epitomize. She said that she 
had read it through and through, and with an 
ever-increasing admiration ; she asked for further 
instruction upon several points; she begged him 
to send her a map with the degrees marked, 
promising to keep it secret, if he so desired. Fi- 
nally, she advised him to take with him a skilful 
astronomer, and, with that thoughtful kindness 
which was a part of herself, she, as usual, tried to 
interpret his wishes and convert them into royal 
enactments. She gave it as her own desire that 
he should take Father Antonio de Marchena, '' be- 
cause he is a good astronomer, and has always 
seemed to me to be in complete accord with you." 
She enclosed an order bearing her signature, 
with a blank space left for the name of some 
astronomer to be inserted at his good pleasure. 
The remarks of the queen so exactly apply to Fa- 
ther Juan Perez de Marchena that the name An- 
tonio can scarcely be accepted as disproving the 
identity. It is more easy to suppose that a slip of 
the pen or a distraction caused a wrong Christian 
name to be given than that Father Juan Perez 
had a "second self" named Antonio, a good as- 



Christopher Cohcmbus. 107 

tronomer and an intimate friend of Columbus, but 
never mentioned except on this occasion. Tliis 
letter of the 5th of September, 1493, leaves the 
matter doubtful, for it does not even say that the 
appointment was definitely made, still less that it 
was accepted. We may conjecture, however, that 
Father Juan Perez, finding in the royal sanction 
an assurance that he was not undertaking a mere 
pleasure-trip, would never have refused an offer 
so tempting to his zeal for science and for souls. 
If he really did consent, then, without doubt he 
would have sailed in the admiral's own ship; and 
as it is known that Father Boil and his com- 
panions did not do so, we might conclude that 
Father Perez would land with Columbus, and 
therefore before the other priests. These con- 
jectures are supported by direct historical testi- 
mony.* 

Columbus named his ship once more after our 
Blessed Lady. The Maria-Galanta had on board 
the court physician, Chanca, a learned man, 
whose letters are valuable, and Antonio Casaus, 
the father af Las Casas, who has been by some 

*M. de Lorgues makes the following citations: Wadding in 
the Annals of the Franciscans, Father Pedro Simon, Provincial 
of the Franciscans in New Granada, Brother Romanus Pane of 
the Hieronymites, and the Dominican historian, Brother Juan 
Melendez, in their several narratives declare that Father Juan 
Perez accompanied Columbus on his second voyage. George 
Cardoso, in the *' Portuguese Ilagiography," says that he was the 
first priest who landed in the New World, and the first who said 
Mass there. Fortunatus Hubcrtus adds that he blessed the first 
cross (see " Christophe Coiomb," i, p. 421). 



io8 Christopher Columbus, 

writers confounded with his illustrious son. The 
"Friend of the Indians" was then a student at 
Seville. Among the passengers were many 
young gentlemen, who thought it a fine thing to 
join in an adventurous search for gold, but never 
meant to soil their dainty hands by manual labor. 
Firmin Zedo, the worker in metal, had gained by 
much boasting a high reputation for scientific 
skill, but in the event it appeared that he was as 
jofnorant as he was conceited. Don Dieero Colon 
and his godson were with the admiral. 

On the 25th of September, 1493, the fleet set 
sail, steering for the Canaries. After taking in 
large supplies of live stock, already partially ac- 
climatized, Columbus gave to all the captains of 
the caravels sealed sailing directions, which were 
only to be opened in case of necessity, and then 
fixed his course further south than on the previ- 
ous voyage. He wished to light upon the land of 
the redoubted Carib tribes, whom the Hispaniola 
Indians had with one accord placed to the south- 
east of their own island. On the 13th of October 
the Spanish fleet lost sight of the island of Ferro. 
The voyage was most prosperous, with a fair 
breeze almost all the way. On the 2d of No- 
vember the signs of land made it prudent to 
advance cautiously after nightfall, and with the 
first light on the following day a mountainous 
island was seen. The admiral christened it Do- 
minica. On their way thither another island ap- 



Christopher Columbus, 109 

peared on the right, and received the name of 
Maria-Galanta/^ 

The first landing- was effected and the first cross 
planted on this island. Other islands lay near, 
and they visited the next day the largest of the 
group, to which Columbus gave the name of 
Santa Maria de Guadalupe, according to his 
promise before mentioned. Here they found 
some women and children, and many dreadful 
relics of cannibalism. At that very time the men 
of the island were engaged in procuring captives 
for their horrible banquets. There is, unfortu- 
nately, little reason to doubt that the account 
given by the first European visitors is true in its 
main features. Even the deliberate infamy of re- 
serving children for future slaughter, and pre- 
paring them carefully till they reached adoles- 
cence, seems to have been an established prac- 
tice among these loathsome barbarians, who, 
having depopulated the nearest islands, extend- 
ed their ravages to more distant shores. Theo- 
ries of autonomy are much disturbed by facts like 
these. Just or unjust, it would at least have been 
merciful, not only to their victims but likewise to 
themselves, to subjugate, or even to enslave, such 
a tribe. 



* Ii is worth noticing that Columbus observed the same order 
of nomenclature on both voyages. His devotion to Our Blessed 
Lady was ardent, but well regulated. In both instances the first 
tribute was oflfered to our Lord, the second to his Mother. 



iio Christopher^ Columbus. 

Guadalupe was the very centre of the Carib 
settlement, so that Columbus had made his calcu- 
lations well. Without a change of course or a 
moment's hesitation, he had steered straight 
across the Atlantic to the object of his search. 
He sent exploring parties into the island. One 
of his captains, Diego Marquez, landing without 
the admiral's permission, set off with eight of his 
men on a tour of inspection, and lost his way in a 
tangled forest. Columbus sent the very brave 
and justly renowned Alonzo de Ojeda to try to 
find the missing men ; but all his efforts were un- 
availing. The thought of leaving them in Guada- 
lupe to the mercy of the cannibals could scarcely 
be endured, but the length of time which had 
elapsed since their disappearance, and the failure 
of Ojeda's skilful and daring pursuit, convinced 
Columbus that he must submit to the sad neces 
sity. Just as the ships were weighing anchor the 
poor wanderers, starved and exhausted, struggled 
to the shore. Some indian women who had been 
captured by the Caribs escaped to the Spanish 
ships. The Carib women were as ferocious and 
almost as expert in war as the men, and they 
were quite able to defend the island against any 
ordinary intruders. 

Leaving Guadalupe, Columbus sailed to the 
northwest for Hispaniola, and as he passed be- 
tween the thickly-clustered islands he found pious 
names for them one by one, till he came to a 



Christopher Columbus. m 

sroup so multitudinous that, without the aid of 
St Ursula and her eleven thousand virgui mar- 
tvrs, even his inventive genius might have been 
at fault At Santa Cruz a boatful of Canb men 
and women gave signal proof of the fierce cour- 
age of that strange people. When their boat was 
u^set by the Spaniards the savages fought m the 
water; and if in their flight they found a mo- 
ment's rest for their feet upon some hidden ledge, 
they rallied and poured in a shower of arrows 
upon their pursuers. 

Continuing his course, Columbus came, on the 
22d of November, to Hispaniola. " By the grace 
of God." says the doctor, Chanca, "and the sci- 
ence of the admiral, we steered as straight as if 
we had been following a well-known and bea en 
track " In his anxiety to see again the little 
colony of La Navidad, Columbus had allowed 
himself only two days on Porto Rico, which well 
deserved a longer stay ; and now that the much- 
expected meeting was close at hand a hriU o 
excitement ran through the fleet. At the Gulf 
of Semana, where the unfortunate skirmish with 
the natives which formed the closing scene of 
the first voyage had taken place, Columbus put 
on shore one of the two young Indians who 
had returned from Spain. He was never heard 
of again. The other, Diego Colon, who was a 
native of San Salvador, remained faithful to the 
end. 



112 Christopher Columbus, 

Near the mouth of the Rio del Oro an explor- 
ing party found two dead bodies with the arms 
fastened in the form of a cross, but their nation- 
ality was no longer distinguishable. The next 
day, not far from the same place, they saw two 
more dead bodies, certamly European. Gloomy 
suspicions were aroused ; the ships pressed for- 
ward in all haste, but it was quite dark when they 
arrived off La Navidad. To keep clear of the 
dangerous reef, the ships were anchored at some 
distance irom the shore. No light was seen. 
Columbus fired ofT two of the heaviest guns, but, 
though the report echoed far along the shore, no 
answer came from the fort. Towards midnight 
a canoe came alongside with two Indians enquir- 
ing for the admiral. They were directed to his 
ship, but would not go on board till they had 
identified him by the light of a lamp. They said 
that the Spanish settlers were well, and, by way 
of confirmation, immediately added that some had 
died from disease, and some had been killed in 
their frequent quarrels among themselves, and 
others had gone to live in a distant part of the 
island. They also said that Caonabo and another 
cacique had made war on the friend of Columbus, 
Guacanagari, and had burnt his village and 
wounded himself. A little later, when the wine 
which they had drunk made them less prudent, 
they informed the young Indian, Diego Colon, 
that all the little colony had been destroyed ; but 



Christopher CoiMinbitS, 113 

this was too dreadful to be believed, and the dif- 
ference of dialects was supposed to have caused 
some misapprehension of meaning. 
' The next day showed that it was only too true. 
Columbus waited for a visit from Guacanagari, 
which the Indians had promised in his name, but 
he did not come. A melancholy silence reigned 
over the place so full of life a few months before. 
The fortress was a blackened ruin, littered with 
remnants of furniture and broken vessels. The 
Indian village close by had also been burnt, from 
which it seemed that at least the Indians of the 
neighborhood had not been treacherous. Guaca- 
nagari was discovered in a village down the coast, 
confined to his hammock by a wound in his leg, 
and he sent to beg that Columbus might pay him 
a visit. The visit was made with all possible 
parade of power and magnificence. The wounded 
cacique gave a detailed account of Caonabo's 
attack, which exactly tallied with the informa- 
tion gathered from other sources ; but when 
Columbus made him submit his wound to 
medical inspection, no trace of any injury ap- 
peared. Suspicion was at once aroused. Fa- 
ther Boi'l demanded that the perfidious chief 
should be punished on the spot. Columbus 
was unwilling to believe in his guilt, but, out 
of respect to the sacred character of his coun- 
sellor, he based his refusal to proceed to extre- 
mities upon the necessity of conciliating the In- 



114 Christopher Columbus. 

dians ; and, as his officers agreed with him, Father 
Boil had to accept the affront with the best grace 
he could. 

It would have been small matter for astonish- 
ment if the poor cacique had indeed cast off his 
Spanish allies on the first good chance, for his 
fidelity had been rudely tested. Washington Ir- 
ving, following Oviedo, says that, except the 
commander, Diego de Arana, and one or two 
others, the thirty-eight colonists were men whom 
it was the height of folly to leave in any responsi- 
ble position, for that they v/ere nearly all of the 
very lowest class, and for the most part common 
sailors, who can never be trusted to conduct 
themselves with discretion ashore. This is not 
the fact. About half of the number were either 
gentlemen or master-tradesmen, and it might 
have been presumed that for a few months, in so 
exceptional a position, all would be on their best 
behavior. If they had adhered to only a small 
portion of the instructions left by Columbus, they 
might have been found alive on his return. By 
the Indian account, in which there was no con- 
flicting testimony, the Nina was scarcely out of 
sight when the garrison of the fort began to do 
very much as they liked. They had found the 
Indians of Hispaniola so yielding and apparently 
so helpless that they probably thought themselves 
quite free from present apprehension, and fancied 
that it would be time enough for submitting to 



Christopher Colitmbits. 1 1 5 

unpleasant constraint when some real danger 
should arise. They roamed about the country in 
parties of two and three together, extorting gold 
from the natives, often with violence, carrying off 
the women, and by their incessant wrangling and 
outrageous licentiousness doing their best to 
prove that the}^ were not celestials, and thus to 
destroy that superstitious reverence which had 
been their chief security. Arafia's authority was 
set at defiance. His lieutenants, Gutierrez and 
Escobedo, aspired to share his command, and, 
having killed a Spaniard in some quarrel, they 
took the law into their own hands, and marched 
away with nine malcontents and their Indian 
wives into the mountams, where Caonabo, a 
Carib by origin, slew them at once. Others 
lived at loose quarters among Guacanagari's In- 
dians, screened by his authority from the punish- 
ment which their sins deserved. Finally, Caona- 
bo, havinof fleshed his sword and found the in- 
vaders not invulnerable, came down from his 
hills, burnt the Indian village, and stormed the 
fort, killing the brave Diego de Araila and his 
remnant of ten faithful men. 

Guacanagari returned the visit, going on board 
the admiral's ship. Here, unfortunately, one of 
the Indian women who had fled from the Caribs, 
and had been detained for instruction and bap- 
tism, so captivated by her beauty the susceptible 
heart of the cacique that he chivalrously deter- 



1 1 6 Christopher Columbus, 

mined to free her and her companions and to 
brave the consequences. He saw that he was no 
longer trusted by the Spaniards, and all the 
studied kindness of Columbus could not make 
him feel at his ease, especially now that he was 
actually scheming the liberation of Catalina and 
her friends. Father Boil read disaffection in his 
looks, and was confirmed in his conviction that 
this was the real murderer of Arafia. When, a 
few days later, the Indian women effected their 
escape and Guacanagari and all his subjects dis- 
appeared from the coast. Father Bo'il was trium- 
phant. 

Subsequently the cacique gave incontestable 
proofs of his friendship for Columbus, and he 
died in obscurity, hated by the Indians of other 
tribes for having welcomed and protected their 
destroyers. Columbus spoke to him of Jesus 
Christ and baptism, but he had seen more than 
enough of what Christianity, at least in practice, 
meant, and he distinctly refused to wear a medal of 
Our Blessed Lady round his neck, though at last, 
upon the urgent entreaty of Columbus, whom he 
really loved, he consented to keep one in his 
possession. 

The Spaniards had no reason to love La Navi- 
dad. A better site for a colony was soon found a 
little to the east of Monte Christi, and near to the 
golden mountains of Cibao, and the city of Isa- 
bella, was traced out with many streets and 



Christopher Columbus, 117 

squares. Soria's peculations were patent to Co- 
lumbus when the cargoes were discharged. The 
provisioning had been "■ economized " in quantity 
and quality — for it is an error to suppose that 
short measure and adulteration are of modern in- 
vention. Since it would be necessary when the 
weather improved to send back the greater part 
of the fleet, Columbus despatched without delay 
two exploring parties under Ojeda and Gorvalan. 
Both returned with enthusiastic reports of the 
vegetable and mineral wealth of the island, which 
came most opportunely to throw a gleam of sun- 
shine upon the dark story of disaster. Columbus 
sent off twelve of the ships under Antonio de 
Torres, giving him a letter to the sovereigns full 
of sanguine anticipations, but ending with a peti- 
tion for fresh supplies of all kinds. This letter, 
which is still extant, affords proof of the adminis- 
trative wisdom of Columbus, and the marginal 
notes show that his suggestions received cordial 
approval, except that a proposal to enslave the 
cannibals, with the twofold object of saving their 
victims, and possibly, by a little wholesome penal 
servitude, reforming the criminals themselves, 
gave Isabella matter for meditation, though it 
was a very mild measure compared with Ferdi- 
nand's treatment of unoffending Moors. After 
much thought, and much consultation of learned 
theologians, she decided that all the Indians, even 
Caribs included, were to be won over by gentle- 



ii8 Christopher Columbus, 

ness.* Afterwards she changed her opinion in 
part, and withdrew her protection from canni- 
bals. 

When Columbus subsequently sent five hundred 
Indians to Spain to be sold for slaves at the discre- 
tion of the sovereigns, Irving, with generous in- 
dignation, says: *' It is painful to find the brilliant 
renown of Columbus sullied by so foul a stain, 
and the glory of his enterprises degraded by such 
flagrant violations of humanity, The customs of 
the times, however, must be pleaded in his apolo- 
gy." He adds from Las Casas: '* If those pious 
and learned men, whom the sovereigns took for 
guides and instructors, were so ignorant of the 
injustice of this practice, it is no wonder that the 
unlettered admiral should not be conscious of its 

impropriety."! 

This is unjust to Columbus. Irving omits an 
important extenuating circumstance. The In- 
dians sent by Columbus to Spain were not, like 

* Isabella certainly judged rightly and Columbus was in the 
wrong ; for to sanction any system of slavery is to perpetuate the 
violation of a natural right which follows close upon the right to 
live. A course of penal servitude might have been beneficial, 
and was in no sense unjust to a nation which lived by murder, 
but no royal enactments could in the world of actual existence 
prevent the penal servitude of a whole people from passing into 
veritable slavery. Yet to win over Caribs by gentle treatment, 
as Isabella proposed, is, to speak for ourselves, more than the 
Colonial Office would like to attempt. The difficulty cannot recur 
in these times, because preaching the Gospel is no longer a state 
concern. Savages not under British rule may cook and eat one 
another at their discretion ; but woe to them, whoever they be, if 
they touch a British subject ! 

f " Life of Columbus," bk. viii. c. v. 



Christopher Columbus. 119 

the unhappy negroes in the detestable traffic 
which began later, torn from their homes and 
peaceful employments without a shadow of pro- 
vocation, but they were prisoners who had been 
taken with arms in their hands in the first battles 
with the cacique, Guatiguana, who had caused 
many Spaniards to be put to death. They were 
prisoners of war, and in some sense their liberty 
was forfeit. Even in our own days prisoners of 
war have been detained like malefactors in close 
confinement for a considerable time. It would be 
wrong to attempt to palliate slavery in any form, 
but it must be admitted that the offence of Colum- 
bus differs not only in degree but in kind from the 
odious cruelty of the African slave-dealers. Las 
Casas, the philanthropist, whose mild reproof of 
Columbus has been quoted, was, even he, not im- 
maculate in this matter; for to save his beloved 
Indians he recommended the importation of ne- 
groes, not as a good thing, but as the lesser evil, 
since they were of stronger frame.* The immo- 
rality of such a substitution ought to have been 
clear to him. The truth is that Columbus, in the 
face of the current ideas of his time, deserves far 
more our praise for protecting the inoffensive, 
than for being willing to enslave the hostile, In- 
dians or the Caribs. 

Columbus has been also severely reproached 

* Robertson, " History of America," bk. iii. (an. 151 7.) 



I20 Christopher Columbus, 

for imposing tribute of gold instead of grain upon 
the Indians of Hispaniola after the war, and forc- 
ing them to undertake distasteful labors. This 
charge derives its greatest force from the insinua- 
tion of avarice which it contains. 

The building of the new city was undertaken 
with enthusiasm, but the first fervor of industry 
soon gave place to disappointment, for the much- 
coveted gold came in but slowly, and epidemic 
sickness completed the despondency. Columbus, 
although he was himself weak and suffering, tried 
to push forward the public works and to encour- 
age the workmen, but when the fieet had departed 
for Europe, discontent spread rapidly. The mis- 
chief-making metallurgist announced dogmatical- 
ly that the fancied gold was iron pyrites, or some- 
thing similar, that the golden ornaments of the na- 
tives were heirlooms and could not be replaced, 
and that all the golden dreams were a delusion. 
A plot was concerted to seize the remaining five 
ships, but Columbus discovered it in time. To 
prevent any attempt of the kind, he put all the 
artillery and ammunition upon one vessel, which 
he consigned to trustworthy hands. Then, leaving 
his brother Diego in charge of the ships and the 
town, he led a general expedition into the moun- 
tains, forming a little army of infantry and cavalry, 
which observed strict discipline and moved in im- 
posing array, always marching past the Indian 
settlements with drums beating and colors flying, 



Christopher Columbus, 121 

towards the mountains of Cibao, where the war- 
like Caonabo ruled. Some of the natives came 
forward to propitiate them with presents, others 
took refuge in their huts, apparently deeming 
themselves safe behind the frail rampart of a wat- 
tled gate. Columbus did not permit his soldiers 
to dispel the innocent delusion. The report which 
Ojeda and Gorvalan had brought back of the rich 
promise of the island was fully confirmed. The 
streams were auriferous enough to convince Fir- 
min Zedo himself, traces of copper were discerned, 
and precious gums and spices in lavish abundance 
filled the forests in the valley. To the ardent 
soul of Columbus, as he gazed from the mountain 
pass across the glorious Vega Real, the scene be- 
fore him was as a glimpse of Paradise. It was, 
however, very much too soon to dream of hea- 
ven. 

Columbus with much skill selected a strong 
position, and traced out the plan of a fortress in- 
tended to protect the passage from Isabella to the 
gold-fields. He directed the work in person, and 
having named the fort after St. Thomas, to re- 
mind his followers of their wrong-headed in- 
credulity, he appointed Pedro Margarite, a noble- 
man of Catalonia and a knight of the Order of 
Sant lago, to the command, with a garrison of 
fifty-six men. He himself returned with the rest 
to Isabella. The island of Hispaniola was divided 
into five little kingdoms, under five independent 



122 Christopher Columbus. 

caciques. News did not spread rapidly from one 
principality to another, and the Indians of the 
Vega Real still regarded the strangers with 
veneration. Caonabo was not once heard of in 
the course of the excursion. A messenger from 
Pedro Margarite very soon brought intelligence 
that the Indians showed signs of hostility, and 
that Caonabo was preparing an attack. It was 
the old story. As soon as the protecting pres- 
ence of the commander-in-chief was withdrawn 
it had fared ill with the poor Indians. The Span- 
iards had learned to obey him, but they obeyed 
no one else, and Margarite even set the example 
of licentious conduct. A reinforcement of twenty 
men was considered quite sufficient for the occa- 
sion, and thirty more were told off to make a 
road for the passage of troops. 

The real anxiety of Columbus lay in the new 
city. Strange maladies caused by noxious vapors, 
and helped by vicious indulgence, spread among 
the Spaniards. The supply of flour failed, and 
hands to grind the wheat were growing scarcer 
every day. It was no time, the viceroy thought, 
for standing upon pride of caste. He ordered all 
the able-bodied men, gentle and simple, to take 
their turn at the grindmg, under penalty of hav- 
ing their rations diminished. It was an indignity 
not to be borne by the '* blue blood " of Spain, 
even though no other course could save the little 
colony from famine and pestilence. Father Boil 



Chris lop her Columbus. 123 

sympathized with the young cavaliers, and re- 
proved Columbus for his " cruelty " when, accord- 
ing to his threat, he punished the refractory by 
diminution of rations. By loudly proclaiming his 
disapprobation of the measures adopted, he, per- 
haps thoughtlessly, did much to foment disaffec- 
tion. When, in spite of his remonstrances, the 
admiral persisted in his conscientious efforts to 
save his people from destruction. Father Boil 
committed the extravagant folly of excommuni- 
cating him for doing what he felt to be his duty. 
He was altogether incapable of understanding the 
great soul of Columbus. Either the theological 
course of study at La Rabida or common sense 
was enough to certify that the censures of the 
Church only fall upon sinful acts, and that where 
no fault exists excommunication has no meaning.* 
Father Boil was resisting legitimate authority in 
a civil matter, and deserved chastisement. As he 
had not the spirit of a martyr, a little fasting on 
bread and water reduced him to silence, though, 
of course, it did not improve his temper. Many 
proud spirits had been offended beyond forgive- 



*" Censura sic communiter definiri solet : Est poena spiritualis 
et medicinalis, qua homo baptizatus ddinquens et contumax per 
potestatem ecclesiasticam quorumdam bonorum spiritualium usu 
privatur" (" Compend.Theol. Mor." P. Joan Gury, S.J., t. ii. §932). 
" Requiritur ad censune validitatem, ut peccatum cui infligitur 
sit mortale, externum, consummatum, non mere prajteritum, et 
conjunctum cum contumacia" (/(J/o'. § 934). "An quis ligetur 
censura, quam manifeste injustam esse novit ? Resp. Negative" 
{Ibid. § (;37). 



124 Christopher Columbus, 

ness, but a more conciliatory policy might have 
been even more disastrous, and probably was not 
feasible. The hidalgos were not open to argu- 
ment where their pride was touched. To exempt 
them from a share in the burden was to throw it 
all upon a few poor men, Avho, with their decreas- 
ing numbers, would have had to be literally worked 
to death to supply the growing wants of the in- 
valids and privileged idlers. Columbus in this 
emergency showed once more that indomitable 
will which clings to duty at all costs, and braves 
popular clamor rather than commit injustice or 
depart from principle. 

When, by the unflinching energy of the com- 
mander, good order had been to some extent re- 
stored, the garrison of Isabella was sent under 
Ojeda to St. Thomas, where Pedro Margarite and 
Ojeda were to exchange commands, Ojeda re- 
maining in charge of the fortress and setting Mar- 
garite free for a military progress round the isl- 
and. He sent admirable instructions to Pedro 
Margarite, whose virtue he had not yet found 
cause to doubt. He ordered him to be most cir- 
cumspect in his dealings with the natives, to treat 
them with scrupulous justice, and to do his best 
to win their affections and predispose them for 
becoming Christians. Then having appointed a 
council, consisting of Father Boil and three lead- 
ing men, under the presidency of his brother, Don 
Diego, to govern the colony in his absence, he set 



Christopher Cohimbus, 125 

sail with three of the five remaining ships, select- 
ing those of lightest draught. The one which he 
took for himself was the same brave little Niiia 
which had served him so faithfully before. It 
seemed almost ungrateful to change that now fa- 
mous name, but to confer the name of the great 
Franciscan saint was, in the judgment of Colum- 
bus, only to add honor, and so the Nina became 
the Santa Clara. 

Independently of all the grief and anxiety which 
the misconduct of the Spaniards had caused, the 
delay itself must have been a severe trial to the 
impetuous spirit of a discoverer. At last Colum- 
bus was able to continue his voyage. On the 24th 
of April he sailed from Isabella, soon arrived at 
the eastern point of Cuba, and at first stood along 
the southern coast of that island. He found the 
natives very well disposed, but as they invariably 
answered all enquiries about gold by pointing 
to the south, he resolved to leave Cuba for the 
present, and, sailing due south, came to Jamaica. 
The inhabitants of this island showed hostility at 
first, but Columbus convinced them of his supe- 
riority in arms, and they began to make friendly 
overtures. Finding no gold, he returned to Cuba 
to continue his westerly explorations. For near- 
ly a month he followed the windings of the coast. 
The progress was slow, for the navigation among 
the groups of little islands which at intervals be- 
set the coast was very dangerous and fatiguing, 



126 Christopher Columbus, 

and from time to time they paused to explore the 
countr}^ All the explorers, with the admiral 
himself, were at length thoroughly convinced that 
Cuba was the mainland of Asia. The little vessels 
had sustained many injuries, and were not in con- 
dition to undertake a very extended voyage. Re- 
luctantly, but convinced that he was acting for 
the best, Columbus turned to retrace his course, 
and once more just failed to discover that Cuba 
was an island. On the southern as on the north- 
ern coast he had all but reached the western ex- 
tremity. As they sailed along they had kept up 
a running intercourse with the natives, who were 
of all the islanders the most uniformly friendly. 
A story is told of a good old man who gave the 
admiral much pious advice. The chaplain of the 
little fleet had just said Mass, at which the In- 
dians, understanding that it was an act of religion, 
had behaved with the greatest reverence. The 
old man came to Columbus, and conversing with 
him by the help of the young Indian, Diego Co- 
lon, told him that he had heard of all his great 
achievements, but that he must be on his guard 
against pride, adding that when the soul leaves 
the body there is a dark abode for those who have 
inflicted evil on their fellow-men, and a place of 
delights for those who have promoted peace. 
When Columbus told him of the majesty of the 
Spanish sovereigns, the old man wanted to go 
with him, but his family persuaded him that it 



Christopher Columbus. 1 2 7 

was his duty to remain. Columbus promised to 
free them from the incursions of the Caribs. If, 
instead of a busy politician like Father Boil and 
the virtuous but for the most part sadly unenter- 
prising monks whom he had chosen to accom- 
pany him, there had been a few genuine apostles, 
a more glorious field for missionary labor could 
scarcely have been found than the fair island of 
Cuba before Spanish profligacy had blighted its 
promise. '' All is now silent and deserted ; civili- 
zation, which has covered some parts of Cuba 
with glittering cities, has rendered this a solitude. 
The whole race of Indians has long since passed 
away, pining and perishing beneath the domina- 
tion of the strangers whom they welcomed so joy- 
fully to their shores."* 

Columbus only abandoned Cuba for the time 
being, fully intending to return in greater force, 
and, after making his way to the civilized parts of 
Asia, to circumnavigate the globe and sail up the 
Red Sea. However, as, in his belief at this period 
of his discoveries, Cuba was the extremity of the 
mainland of Asia, it was of immense political im- 
portance to establish the prior claim of Spain 
beyond the power of Portugal to dispute it. A 
solemn document was drawn up containing the 
names and depositions of all the members of the 
expedition, certifying that all without exception 

* Irving, " Life of Columbus," bk. vii. c. iv. 



128 CJmstopher Columbus, 

were convinced that this was the mainland of 
Asia. 

As the wind was not fair for Hispaniola, Co- 
lumbus first sailed round Jamaica, and then, in 
spite of the state of the ships, was in the act of 
making a fresh descent upon the Carib shores 
with his formidable force of fifty men, the com- 
bined number of the three crews ; but he had over- 
taxed his strength, and he was carried in a pro- 
longed fainting fit back to Isabella, where, when 
he returned to consciousness, he found his bi^other 
Bartholomew standing by his bed. Bartholomew 
seems to have met with many dela3^s before he 
arrived at the English court, but he was kindly 
received by Henry the Seventh, and assistance in 
the prosecution of his design was actually pro- 
mised. On his way to bear the good tidings to 
his brother Christopher, he heard in Paris that 
the expedition was already an accomplished fact, 
and the French king received him with high 
honor and assisted him liberally- with money. 
He was welcomed with open arms at the Spanish 
court, and, as he was himself an experienced navi- 
gator, he was put in command of three vessels 
which were starting with supplies. His arrival 
was most opportune; for though Diego was a 
most estimable man, he was not formed by na- 
ture for coercing discontented spirits. Bartholo- 
mew was a man of powerful frame and unbending 
will, knowing by intuition the moment for action, 



Christopher Columbus. 129 

and striking fearlessly. He had not the gentle- 
ness of his great brother, but his manly virtue 
and genuine nobility of character made ample 
amends for some harshness of manner and defect 
of refinement. Although he was a devoted Ca- 
tholic, with unflinching faith and honest piety, the 
more spiritual gifts of the interior life were be- 
yond his appreciation. Diego was naturally of a 
studious turn. He revered his brother Christo- 
pher as a second father, and looked upon it as a 
call from heaven to help him in whatever way he 
could. 

Christopher, thanking God for sending him 
Bartholomew at that critical juncture, at once 
appointed him adelantado^ or governor, and put 
all the power in his hands during his own conva- 
lescence. During the five months of his own 
absence the affairs of the colony had grown all 
but desperate. If any proof were wanting of his 
competency to govern, it might be found in the 
invariable confusion which marked his absence. 
The wonder is, not that one trouble followed 
another till ruin stared the Spaniards in the face, 
but that discipline could have ever been main- 
tained at all among such reckless libertines. 

Pedro Margarite left the fort of St. Thomas, as 
had been arranged, in the hands of Ojeda, but 
with that one act his obedience ended. Instead of 
making the prescribed progress round the island, 
he descended into the beautiful valley, and there 



130 Christopher Cohimbus, 

set the example to his soldiers of every sordid 
vice, till the poor Indians of the Vega, in their 
turn, learned to hate the very name of Spaniard. 
Then, terrified to think of what he had done, he 
concerted with the help of Father Boil, to whom — 
of course, he did not reveal his own misdeeds — 
a clandestine departure to Europe for the pur- 
pose of representing to the sovereigns the mis- 
eries which the misgovernment of Columbus had 
brought upon the poor deluded colonists and 
the poor persecuted Indians. This was the gene- 
ral policy of the enemies of Columbus. By their 
own malversation they made peace and good or- 
der impossible, and then they demanded that 
he should be punished for their iniquities. The 
blackest feature in Margarite's dark villany is 
his ingratitude ; for Columbus had treated him 
with marked kindness, and had written in his be- 
half to procure the favor of Isabella for the wife 
and children left in Spain by the Knight of Sant 
lago. Father Boil was easily persuaded that it 
was his duty to inform the crown of what was 
going on in the colony, and when Columbus re- 
turned to Isabella, the deserters had made good 
their flight in the ships which brought Bartholo- 
mew Columbus. Diego's authority had been 
despised from the first by the hidalgo faction. 
Margarite had not even cared to delegate his 
command. The soldiers were suddenly left with- 
out any general, and could not long conceal 



Christopher Columbtis. 131 

their weakness. Ten Spaniards were killed in 
one place, and forty more were burnt in a hospi- 
tal by order of Guatiguana. A formidable league 
of four out of the five caciques, Guacanagari re- 
fusing to join, had been formed by Caonabo, who 
now moved to the attack of St. Thomas. Ojeda 
was a real soldier and was on his guard. Caonabo 
found assault and starvation equally unavailing, 
and, after thirty days* siege, decamped. 

Soon after Ojeda executed one of the most dar- 
ing stratagems on record. He went with nine 
cavaliers to seek Caonabo in the midst of his 
own people. He promised to bestow upon him 
no less a gift than the Angelus bell of Fort St. 
Thomas, which was supposed to have the power 
to collect a multitude by the sound of its voice, 
if he would come to Isabella and make terms with 
Columbus. The offer was too tempting, and Ca- 
onabo agreed to go, but he insisted on taking a 
large army with him. On the march Ojeda per- 
suaded the chief to mount behind him and have 
a ride on the proud war horse, which had so 
often excited his admiration. He anticipated no 
danger with his army round him, and gladly ac- 
cepted the offer. Ojeda made a few circles with 
his delighted captive before the eyes of all the 
Indians, and then set spurs to the horse, while 
the other cavaliers, closing in with the threat of 
instant death, secured Caonabo, and the raid was 
successfully accomplished. From that time Ca- 



132 Christopher Colwiibits. 

onabo had the most enthusiastic reverence for 
the brave Ojeda. In the presence of Columbus 
he would not give the slightest sign of respect, 
but when Ojeda entered the room he rose at 
once to salute the man who had dared to carry 
him off in open day with all his warriors looking 
on. It must have been a relief to Columbus to 
have Caonabo safe, but, when the first astonish- 
ment of the Indians had subsided, their hostility 
only became more bitter, for the captured cacique 
had a brother who shared his martial spirit and 
tried to organize a general rising of the tribes 
for his release. Guacanagari alone would not re- 
spond to the summons. 

The arrival of Antonio de Torres with four 
shiploads of provisions improved the condition 
of affairs. He was the bearer of a gracious letter 
from Isabella asking the admiral either to come 
himself, or to send his brother Bartholomew or 
some one whom he judged competent, to be pre- 
sent at the final adjudication of a boundary line 
to separate the possessions of Spain and Portugal. 
Columbus was still ill in bed, Bartholomew could 
on no account be spared, so Diego was sent to 
counteract as far as possible the misrepresenta- 
tions of Father Boil and Pedro Margarite. He 
took with him five hundred Indian prisoners, to 
be dealt with at the discretion of the sovereigns. 

Isabella, besides writing to her viceroy of the 
Indies, had sent a letter to the colonists, bidding 



Christopher Cohunbus, 133 

them obey him as they would herself. These two 
letters would do more than much medical attend- 
ance to help the convalescence of Columbus, and 
he rapidly regained his health, sufficiently to be 
able to take the field in person against the con- 
federate caciques. All the effective force he could 
muster amounted to two hundred infanti'y, twenty 
horsemen, and a few formidable bloodhounds, while 
word was brought that an immense multitude 
from all parts of the populous island was gathered 
in the Vega within two days' march, ready to 
burst upon the little town and sweep away the 
handful of detested invaders. The crimes of the 
Spaniards had put all conciliation out of the ques- 
tion, and Columbus, forced in self-defence to be- 
come a conqueror, assumed the offensive. He 
marched out with the adelantado. Ojeda, at the 
head of his twenty horse, was a host in himself. 
The infantry attacked in two divisions, and Ojeda 
came down like a whirlwind. The Indians, in 
spite of their numbers, fled panic-struck, yielding 
to the resolute little band of Europeans an easy 
victory, which, if we are to compare the numbers 
engaged on both sides, two hundred men against, 
it is said, one hundred thousand, may well be 
called miraculous.^ The subjugation of the island 
was soon complete. 

*The number of the Indians cannot be even approximately 
ascertained, but it must have been very large. The victory was 
a wonderful achievement, but we are scarcely justified in appeal- 



134 Christopher Columbus, 

Meantime, Father Boil and Margarite were busi- 
ly defaming Columbus to protect themselves. 

*' They charged him with tasking the commu- 
nity with excessive labor during a time of general 
sickness and debility ; with stopping the rations 
of individuals on the most trifling pretext, to the 
great detriment of their health ; with wantonly 
inflicting severe corporal punishments on the 
common people ; and with heaping indignities on 
Spanish gentlemen of rank. They said nothing, 
however, of the exigencies which had called for 
unusual labor, nor of the idleness and profligacy 
of the commonalty, which required coercion and 
chastisement ; nor of the seditious cabals of the 
Spanish cavaliers, who had been treated with in- 
dulgence rather than severit}^ In addition to 
these complaints, they represented the state of 
confusion of the island in consequence of the ab- 
sence of the admiral, and the uncertainty which 
prevailed concerning his fate, intimating the pro- 
bability of his having perished in his foolhardy 
attempts to explore unknown seas and discover 
unprofitable lands." * 

ing to it as an evident " miracle," using the word in its theologi- 
cal sense. Panic fear is an unreasonable thing, and does not 
proceed by numerical calculations. The vague terrors of igno- 
rance defy argument. If we wish to realize the effect of Ojeda's 
charge with horses and dogs, we may try to imagine what would 
be the state of mind of an English mob, unprovided with guns, 
if they saw a score of fine African lions advancing at a run to 
attack them in the open plain. 

* Irving, "Life of Columbus," bk. viii. c. viii. 



Christopher Columbus. 135 

Isabella could not but feel her sublime confi- 
dence in Columbus somewhat shaken by the ap- 
parenth^ disinterested statement of a man of the 
reputation and rank of the vicar-apostolic. It 
seemed clear that the affairs of Hispaniola requir- 
ed investigation in any case ; and if the admiral 
had really perished at sea, it became doubly ne- 
cessary to take stringent measures. A fleet was 
on the point of starting with supplies, and Fon- 
seca was ordered to choose some trusty officer 
for the command, and commission him to enquire 
into all abuses and make a full report of the same ; 
but if he found that the admiral had returned safe 
from his voyage, he was not to supersede him or 
interfere with his authority. 

At this conjuncture Don Diego arrived, and 
not only bore witness to the fact that Columbus 
was alive, but gave quite a new coloring to his 
conduct. Isabella gladly admitted a more favor- 
able judgment, and the royal orders were so far 
modified that, instead of allowing Fonseca to se- 
lect his own commissioner, Juan Aguado, sup- 
posed to be an especial friend of Columbus, was 
sent out to ascertain the state of the colony. 
Aguado, like Margarite, had experienced the 
marked favor of Columbus, and, like Margarite, 
returned evil for good. He had been chosen for 
his office with the express object of soothing as 
far as possible the unpleasantness of the measures 
which it had been judged necessary to adopt. The 



136 Christopher Columbus, 

royal letters of credit were pompously vague ; but 
instead of softening down their possible meaning, 
he pushed it to the extremest limit. Columbus 
was engaged in suppressing a fresh revolt of the 
brothers of Caonabo when he arrived, and seemed 
to him, in his pitiful conceit, to be keeping out of 
the way in fear and trembling. He insolently ig- 
nored Don Bartholomew's presence, causing the 
terms of his appointment to be announced with 
sound of trumpet : '' Cavaliers, esquires, and other 
persons who by our ordei'S are in the Indies, we 
send to you Juan Aguado, our groom of the cham- 
bers, who will speak to you on our part. We 
command you to give him faith and credit." In- 
stead of keeping to his instructions and collecting 
information, he at once proceeded to order nu- 
merous arrests, and had the presumption to send 
off a troop of horse to find the recreant vice- 
roy in his hiding-place and bring him to judg- 
ment. 

Columbus needed no summoning. Aguado was 
preparing himself for the encounter, and meant to 
show who was master. He was quite disconcert- 
ed when his noble victim meekly signified his sub- 
mission to the will of the sovereigns. Accusers 
were numerous, for the star of Columbus was 
declining ; and as soon as Aguado had collected 
enough evidence to achieve the final ruin of the 
Genoese adventurer and his upstart family, he 
proposed to return to Spain. Columbus resolved 



Christopher Cohunbtts. 137 

to go with him. Just as they were preparing to 
start the most fearful storm in the memory of 
man swept over the harbor and destroyed all the 
caravels except the Santa Clara {oliin Niila), which 
bore a charmed life. While she was being repair- 
ed for the admiral's own use, and a new vessel 
was being built for Aguado from the wrecks, 
word was brought of an opportune discovery of 
some excavations in a distant part of the island, 
which, from the greater abundance of gold in the 
vicinity, seemed to be the mines which had been 
opened in ancient times. The adelantado was 
sent to survey, and found appearances very 
promising. Columbus left him in command, and 
set sail with Aguado on the loth of March, 1496, 
the two caravels being crowded with invalids and 
homesick colonists. 

The voyage was one tedious struggle against 
contrary winds, so that after a month of tacking 
and veering the Caribbee Islands were still in 
sight. Not only community of interests kept the 
vessels together, but it would seem that, once at 
sea, Aguado surrendered his supremacy. Per- 
haps he felt it the part of wisdom to keep on good 
terms with a man who, slandered and outraged as 
he had been, was still the greatest of navigators, 
at a time when an ocean voyage was still a peril- 
ous enterprise. They landed in Guadalupe to 
take in supplies, nor did they make their second 
start till the 20th of April. Again their progress 



138 Christopher Cohimbtcs. 

was so slow that provisions began to fail when 
they had still far to go, and at the beginning of 
June they were reduced to such famine that only 
the strons: hand of Columbus saved the Indians on 
board from being killed and eaten. When he 
would by no means permit this atrocit}^ a clamor- 
ous demand was made that the poor creatures 
might be thrown overboard, thus at least to lessen 
the number of useless mouths. Columbus stood 
firm, representing that Indians were fellow-men 
with souls to be saved, and that these Indians in 
particular were being taken to Spain expressly to 
be instructed and baptized. He added that in 
three days they would sight Cape St. Vincent. 
There were many experienced seamen with him, 
not one of whom agreed with him in this decla- 
ration, though they were also widely at variance 
among themselves. However, once more he was 
right. On the evening of the third day he main- 
tained that the land was near, and gave orders to 
take in sail as a precaution, much to the displea 
sure of all his weary and famished men, who loud- 
ly protested that they could not bear their suffer- 
ings any longer, and would far rather run the 
risk of being dashed ashore in the dark than 
submit to any unnecessary prolongation of their 
cruel hunger. Daylight revealed Cape St. Vin- 
cent, and, with an involuntary impulse of return- 
ing reverence, they recognized the surpassing skill 
of their wonderful commander. The invalids in 



Christopher Colitmbus. 139 

the ships had experienced on the long voyage the 
fatherly solicitude of Columbus, and many who at 
first had thought favorably of Aguado had found 
out by constant intercourse his vanity and worth- 
lessness. The poor and the afflicted, oppressed 
Indians or sick Spaniards, always seemed to be 
drawn by some secret sympathy nearer in their 
distress to the kind heart of the great admiral, but 
their friendship was no protection to him against 
the machinations of his powerful enemies. 

The ships reached Cadiz on the nth of June. 
Caonabo never saw Spain. Columbus had hoped 
to win him by the display of the magnificence of 
Spanish power, and then restore him to his for- 
mer influence to be a useful friend ; but his wild 
nature pined in captivit}^, and he died on the 
voyage. 

The wretched condition and dejected mien of 
the starved crews confirmed the sinister reports 
which had been widely spread, and Columbus was 
once again in popular esteem a visionary, cheat- 
ing himself and his followers with golden dreams. 
His sanguine anticipations were met with a sneer 
of incredulity. Before the first voyage his specu- 
lations had appeared unfounded ; after the second 
voyage his undeniable discoveries were declared 
to be worse than useless. 

On his arrival at Cadiz Columbus sent to in- 
form the sovereigns of his return with Aguado, 
and then waited a whole month for their answer. 



140 Christopher Cohimbus, 

It was during this dela}^ that he were publicly 
the habit of St. Francis. The fact is incontesta- 
ble, and the motive equally so. To a Protestant 
like Washington Irving, the idea of an admiral 
walking about the streets with a rope round his 
waist and a cowl on his head was so incongruous 
that to save his hero's sanity he felt himself bound 
to suppose that this was the fulfilment of another 
of those extravagant vows made at sea under 
stress of weather. There is no mention elsewhere 
of any such vow, and Catholics do not think a 
man insane because he declares that he either is, 
or would like to be, a monk. Columbus had 
ample cause for being disgusted with the world 
and its ingratitude, and, whether Father Juan 
Perez had just returned to La Rabida or had 
never left it, Columbus might possibly have wish- 
ed, with the consent of his wife, to end his days 
in the peace of the cloister; or if he believed that 
the ungrateful world still needed his assistance, 
or felt with remorse that his poor wife had had 
already too much to suffer on his account, he 
might have wished to signify that he was, as far 
as the duties of his state of life permitted, a true 
son of St. Francis. We hear no more of good Fa- 
ther Juan Perez de Marchena, except the solitary 
fact that he died before his friend. The records 
of the convent, as was said before, have unfortu- 
nately perished. 

A month's interval gave the active enemies of 



Christopher Cohcmbus. 141 

Columbus, Bernard Boil, Pedro Margarite, Juan 
de Aguado, and the potentate, Fonseca, time to 
do their worst. However, when the answer to 
his letter came at length, it was all that could be 
desired. The sovereigns expressed their grati- 
tude and congratulation, and invited him to pre- 
sent himself at court as soon as he had sufficiently 
recovered from the fatigues of the voyage. Isa- 
bella seems to have had all her doubts dispelled as 
soon as she was once more able to see and speak 
to Columbus. Not one word of blame seems to 
have been spoken in the interview at Burgos, 
and though we know from subsequent events that 
Ferdinand was even at this time unfriendly, yet 
Isabella was incapable of dissimulation, and soon 
after this she wrote to Columbus an unofficial let- 
ter, still extant, which bears witness to her undi- 
minished veneration. 

The time was almost as unpropitious for the 
prosecution of distant discovery as the closing 
period of the INIoorish war had been. Isabella's 
maternal heart was entirely occupied with matri- 
monial projects for the welfare of her children, 
and Ferdinand was entirely engrossed with his 
European wars. He cared, indeed, notably little 
about his new dominions, which hitherto had been 
more burdensome than lucrative to his treasury. 
King Ferdinand was a shrewd man of business, 
but by no means a far-sighted monarch. Colum- 
bus asked for eight vessels to follow up the Cuban 



142 Christopher Columbus, 

explorations and establish a firm footing on the 
mainland of Asia. It was not till the following 
spring (1497), that the proposal received real at- 
tention. In the meantime, the kind forethought 
of the queen had arranged an interview, which 
gave him a new friend, worthy to stand b}^ the 
side of Father Juan Perez or to take his place. 

Jayme Ferrer, the lapidary of Burgos, is very 
briefly mentioned by Irving, * who gives the 
substance of a letter written by him at the com- 
mand of Isabella to Columbus, advising him to 
explore further to the south. He was a great 
traveller and a zealous Christian, much esteemed 
by Isabella, and a personal friend of the great 
Cardinal Mendoza. The list of his accomplish- 
ments is given after the pretentious manner of 
those days, and ranges over everything knowable 
in human science, from mathematics to poetry, 
and he was a theologian besides. The versatili- 
ty of his genius may be conjectured from the fact 
that the professional mineralogist and observant 
traveller wrote a theological treatise on the al- 
legories of Dante,t and his learning seems to 
have been, in the judgment of his contempora- 
ries, not less deep than varied. The fragments 
of his writings which remain confirm this opin- 
ion. He was a man worth knowing, and, as he 

* " Life of Columbus," bk. x. c. i. 

f " Sentencias Catolicas del dive poeta Dante." Barcelona. 
1545- 



Christopher Columbus, 143 

had by this time returned from his travels in the 
East, Isabella summoned him to court. He had 
formed from the first a high idea of the scien- 
tific value of the achievements of Columbus, and 
was one of the few who shared with Isabella an 
insight into the religious character of the en- 
terprise, which he styled *' more divine than 
human." In January of the year 1495 he wrote 
to the queen, offering some advice about the 
Papal line of demarcation, and in the letter he 
said : '' I believe that God, in the high and mys- 
terious designs of his providence, has chosen 
him as his accredited agent for this work, which 
seems to me nothing less than a prelude and pre- 
paration to the things which God, according to 
his good providence, proposes to make known to 
us in due time to his glory, and to the salvation 
and happiness of the world." * In his letter to 
Columbus his admiration is still more marked. 
He says : 

*'The infallible providence of God sent the 
great Thomas from the West to the East to 
make known to the Indies our holy Catholic 
law ; and you, sir. Providence has sent by an op- 
posite path from the East to the West, in order 
that, by the divine will, you may reach the East, 
the furthest limits of Upper India, to carry to 
the nations which have not heard the preaching 

* " Coleccion diplomatica," n. 68, 



144 Christopher Columbus. 

of Thomas the knowledge of salvation, and to 
fulfil the words of the prophet : In omncm terrain 
exivit sonus eorum. 

*' Without fear of error, I afhrm that you, sir, 
hold the office of an apostle, of an ambassador of 
God, sent by the divine decrees to reveal his 
holy name to lands where the truth is still un- 
known. It would not have been be3'Ond the 
claims of your mission, in dignity or importance, 
if a pope or a cardinal of Rome had shared your 
glorious labors in those lands. But the Pope is 
prevented by grave concerns, and the cardinal 
by his relish of the comforts of life, from following 
such a course as yours. It is quite true, never- 
theless, that with an object like 3'ours the prince 
of the apostolic army came to Rome, and that 
his fellow-laborers, vessels of election, went about 
the world, spending their strength, severely 
tried, with sandals worn and garments rent, 
their bodies exhausted by the dangers, the hard- 
ships, and fatigues of those travels, which often 
gave them only the bread of bitterness to eat." ^" 

The friendship of such a man as Jayme Ferrer 
came when it was most needed to help Columbus 
in his old age, to keep up his courage to the end 
through many tribulations. 

* This letter shows that Jayme Ferrer, true Catholic and loyal 
son of the Pope, was no timid devotee. 




CHAPTER IV. 

Isabella's kind reception of Columbus some- 
what deranged the plans of his calumniators. 
Fonseca saw that it was necessary to proceed 
cautiously; for though his unforgiven foe was 
going down the hill, he was not quite near enough 
to the precipice yet, and a premature attempt to 
push him over might be dangerous to the assail- 
ant. No amount of royal favor could remove the 
disagreeable impression produced by the sallow 
faces and wasted frames of the unsuccessful Ar 
gonauts, and even when the sovereigns were at 
leisure at last to give ail requisite orders for a 
new expedition, much remained to be done before 
the orders were carried out ; and the state of 
things sadly resembled what we have already de- 
scribed in speaking of the preparations for the 
first voyage, when sailors hung back in dismay and 
ship-owners put all obstacles in the way of de- 
parture. Fonseca did not dare to disobey Isa- 
bella, but he could and did devise delays and im- 
pediments in the execution of unwelcome com- 
mands. The wedding of Prince Juan was fol- 

145 



146 Christopher Columbus, 

lowed exactly six months later by his death. Co- 
lumbus could not break in upon the deep grief of 
his benefactress. 

He employed part of his forced leisure in exe- 
cuting a deed of entail, the terms of which reveal 
to us his inmost soul, and explain much that would 
otherwise want explaining. 

He begins in the name of the Blessed Trinity, 
to whom he refers the first idea, and the com- 
plete conviction which succeeded it, that a passage 
to the Indies by sailing westward was possible. 
He recalls with gratitude that by the grace of our 
Lord he had discovered the land of the Indies and 
numerous islands, and, as great revenues are sure 
to come to him therefrom, he therefore founds 
this '' Majoratus." 

He places the deed under the protection of the 
Holy See,* because his only object in framing it 
is .the service of Almighty God. He appoints his 
son Diego his heir, and the property is to de- 
scend by primogeniture. He requires those who 
succeed him to use' in their signature no other 
title than that of admiral, and to add always the 
formula which he had invented, and which was a 
prayer in itself — namely, *' S. S. A. S. X. M. J. 
XPO Ferens,"t the letters being arranged in four 
lines. 

*" Coleccion Diplomdtica," docum. 126. 

f "Servus Supplex Altissimi Salvatoris, Christus, Maria, Jo- 
seph, Christo Ferens " (" Christophe Colomb," i. p. 585)- Irving 
says : " It [his signature] partook of the pedantic and bigoted 



Christopher Columbus. 147 

The first stipulation is in behalf of the poor, to 
whom a tenth of all the revenues is to be assigned, 
"for the honor of God eternal and almighty." 
Among the poor, any destitute members of the 
family are to have a prior claim. In this last 
clause we may recognize the Christian virtues of 
humility and well-ordered charity. 

Then the admiral proceeds at once to the 
thought which lay nearest to his heart, the long- 
cherished purpose of recovering the Holy Sepul- 
chre. He bids his son and heir remember that 
when he was planning the voyage to the Indies 
he had designed to petition the sovereigns to de- 
vote all the profits to the conquest of Jerusalem, 
and requires him accordingly to strive to amass 
much treasure, in order to be able to assist the 
king, if he would undertake the enterprise, or, 
if he would not, then to fit out a large army 
and go without him ; in which case he hoped 
that the help, refused for the commencement, 
would be conceded for the prosecution of the 
crusade. 

After having ** liberated his soul " with regard 

character of the age, and perhaps of the peculiar character of the 
man, who, considering himself mysteriously elected and set apart 
from' among men for certain great purposes, adopted a correspon- 
dent formality and solemnity in all his concerns." A pious sig- 
nature scarcely deserves such harsh censure. A little lower he 
says : " Don Fernando, son to Columbus, says that his father, 
when he took his pen in hand, usually commenced by writing, 
'Jesus cum Maria sit nobis in via'" ('Life of Columbus," 
AppenJ!x, n. 3 p. 



148 Christopher Cohunbus. 

to the Holy Sepulchre, he shows his solicitude 
next for the temporal power of the Pope : 

'' Item^ I ordain that if, for the chastisement of 
our sins, any schism should come to be in the 
Church of God, and any person of any rank or 
nation whatsoever should endeavor by violence 
to deprive it of its privileges and possessions, the 
said Don Diego, or whosoever shall possess the 
said Majoratus, do immediately, under pain of 
disinheritance, put himself at the feet of the Holy 
Father (unless, indeed, the latter should have 
turned heretic — a thing which God will not per- 
mit), and offer himself and his dependants to do 
him service with all their resources, with arms 
and money, interest and principal, to crush the 
schism and prevent the spoliation of the Church.* 

That nothing may be wanting to the *' ultra- 
montane " character of this interesting document, 
another obligation is imposed of building in the 
Vega-Real in Hispaniola a church under the 
invocation of ''St. Mary of the Conception" — a 
mode of honoring our Blessed Lady which sup- 
poses the doctrine of her " Immaculate Concep- 
tion." 

Then a hospital is to be founded, and chairs of 
theology established for the instruction of those 
who shall devote themselves to the conversion 
of the Indians. 

*"Coleccion Diplomatica," docum. 126. 



Christopher Columbus. 149 

Isabella during this interval of delay tried to 
induce Columbus to accept a large tract in His- 
paniola for his private property, with the title 
of duke or marquis, but he resolutely refused. 
Perhaps he thought it inconsistent with his sub- 
lime vocation to accept a reward which, while it 
injured his position by making him in a manner 
primus inter pares, might tempt him in his old age, 
under the specious pretext of attending to the 
interests of his children, to make a home for him- 
self and them, and, sinking into dignified ease, to 
give up the further prosecution of his grand but 
self-sacrificing and eminently *' uncomfortable '* 
designs. It seems scarcely likely that his sole 
motive in refusing Isabella's generous proposal 
was a prudent fear of increasing his unpopularity. 
Nor, on the other hand, was he guilty of foolish 
inconsistency in rejecting a new source of revenue, 
since the wealth which he desired for crusading 
purposes was sure to come sooner or later, he 
thought, from "■ the eighth " guaranteed to him in 
the capitulation drawn up at Santa Fe, if there 
was faith in a royal word and gold in the Indies. 
It was long in coming, for we find him saying in 
1504, in a letter to his son Diego: ''I receive 
nothing of the revenue due to me ; I live by bor- 
rowing." And in another place : *' Little have I 
profited by twenty years of service with such 
toils and perils, since at present I do not own a 
roof in Spain. If I desire to eat or sleep, I have 



150 Christopher Columbus. 

no resort but an inn, and for the most times have 
not wherewithal to pay my bill." ''^ 

Fresh causes of delay arose. Ferdinand was 
much distressed for money, but Isabella had actu- 
ally set aside certain funds for the new expedi- 
tion, when, in October, 1497, Pedro Alonza Nino 
returned from Hispaniola, and by his foolish boast 
that he brought much gold caused the immediate 
revocation of the royal grant; for it was sup- 
posed that this valuable freight would more than 
suffice to meet the demands of the admiral. 
When the unfortunate captain, who had gone to 
visit his family before forwarding his despatches, 
came to confess that his gold was in the shape of 
three hundred Indian prisoners of war to be 
sold, Isabella and Ferdinand, for different rea- 
sons, were equally disgusted. Although the 
letter of the royal instructions ordained that 
Indians concerned in the death of Spaniards 
should be enslaved, yet Isabella was shocked at 
the number. Arrangements had to be recom- 
menced. Orders and counter-orders wasted 
much time. The anxiety of Columbus increased 
with every fresh delay ; for he knew by sad 
experience how much the colony depended upon 
imported food, and how scarcity of provisions 
increased the difficulty of governing selfish and 
discontented and seditious men. Yet even his 

* Irving's " Life of Columbus," bk. xviii. c. ii. 



Christopher Columbus, 151 

sagacious mind could not easily have conjectured 
the extent of the evils which tried to the utmost 
all the grand qualities, the high courage, the 
strong endurance, the vigilance, the practical wis- 
dom, the mingled severity and mercy of the good 
Adelantado. The more he displayed his anxiety 
to hurry forward the preparations, the more '* his 
cold-blooded enemy, Fonseca,":): tried to interpose 
vexatious obstacles. In his despair, when volun- 
teers could not be found, he proposed a measure 
which, though it met with the eager approval of the 
sovereigns, must be allowed to have been even in 
that dire extremity a grievous error of judgment. 
This was to commute the imprisonment of lesser 
criminals into a term of service in the colon}^ 
Nine lacrymcB ! There were bad men enough, and 
"• basely bad," in Hispaniola already without turn- 
ing loose into the island men convicted of multi- 
form villany. Columbus, who to the end could 
never fully reauze the deep wickedness of which 
the human heart is capable, no doubt thought that 
this plan might be regarded as the lesser of two 
evils, inasmuch as to send no ships at all was to 
consign the colony to certain destruction, while 
to send out men who had misdemeaned them- 
selves at home was to give them a chance of be- 
coming honest men, a chance which many of them, 
under the combined inducement of gratitude and 

% Irving's " Life of Columbus," bk. ix. c. iii. 



152 Christopher Columbus. 

interest, might be glad to seize. It was a melan- 
choly mistake, and one which brought its own 
punishment. 

By the most strenuous exertions, Columbus 
succeeded at last in fitting out two caravels early 
in 1498 ; but to accomplish this it was necessary 
for him. Viceroy as he was, to take much of the 
actual drudgery of the work upon himself, to go 
round to the storehouses and deal personally with 
the tradesmen. He speaks feelingly in a letter 
written long afterwards of his laborious quest of 
provisions on this occasion. The two vessels 
arrived in Hispaniola at the beginning of Febru- 
ar}^, bearing to Bartholomew the royal confirma- 
tion of his appointment, which gave strength to 
his government at such a critical conjuncture that 
perhaps a few weeks of additional delay would 
have made reconstruction impossible. 

Six more caravels, by assiduous toil, Avere ready 
at the end of May. Columbus was just about to 
set sail when a contemptible underling of Fon- 
seca's colonial office, hoping to please his patron, 
ventured to crown a long series of petty annoy- 
ances by personal insolence. The admiral, for- 
getting old age and shattered health, chastised 
him on the spot. It may have been another error 
of judgment, for the wretched man had an official 
character, and Fonseca would be sure to take the 
retribution as an insult to himself; but even if 
this infliction of well-merited punishment was a 



[) Christopher Columbus, 153 

grave fault in diplomacy, the moral offence was 
surely a very venial one, and perhaps to Colum- 
bus it seemed more important to vindicate his 
honor and assert his power before his own re- 
tainers than to consider very nicely the effect of 
his act upon one who could scarcely become more 
bitterly hostile than he then was. Fonseca was 
certainly not the man to let slip such a golden 
opportunity, and Las Casas attributes the decline 
of the influence of Columbus at court to this inci- 
dent, which was represented in dark colors when 
he was not present to defend himself. 

The third voyage began on the 30th of May, 
1498, under the invocation of the Blessed Trinity,* 
and with a vow to give to the first new land the 
the name of Trinidad. The avowed object from 
the first was to arrive at the mainland. Islands 
enough had been found already; it was time to 
think of continents, and Columbus, still irrepres 
sible, was dreaming of discoveries which should 
throw into the shade every exploit except the 
imperishable glory of the first landing. From the 
Canary Islands he despatched three of the cara- 
vels straight to Hispaniola, under the command 
of Alonzo de Carvajal, an excellent officer, Pedro 
de Arana, uncle of the unfortunate Diego de 
Arana, and brother to Beatrix, and Juan Colom- 



*" Parti en nombre de la Santisima Trinidad, miercoles, 30 de 
mayo, de la villa de San Lucar " (Letter to the King and Queen. 
Navarrete, torn i.) 



154 Christopher Columbus » 

bo, a kinsman from Genoa. He himself sailed for 
the Cape de Verde Islands, to take in fresh sup- 
plies, intending thence to steer southwest till he 
had crossed the line, and then strike boldly west 
for any land which Providence might yield to his 
scrutiny. But a calm of eight days' duration, 
under an insufferable sun, which melted the tar, 
opened the seams, burst the casks, spoiled the 
provisions, and very nearly stifled the sailors, 
made it necessary to shorten the voyage, and to 
forego for that occasion the design of crossing 
the equator. When a breeze was given to their 
prayers they ran before it due west ; but it soon 
became clear that the provisions would not last 
even for that shorter voyage, and that it was ex- 
pedient to make for the nearest known land with 
all convenient haste. Columbus turned north for 
the Caribbee Islands, and on his way saw to the 
west three mountains united at the base, which 
he promptly christened Trinidad, according to 
his vow. He discerned in this coincidence a 
miraculous approval* At the '* hour of Com- 
pline " on the 31st of July they reached the 
island, but found no anchorage till they had 
coasted some leagues. To the great delight of 
all, for they had reached their last cask in each of 
the ships, they met with abundance of pure water 

* " El presente attribuy6 a un senalado beneficio de Dios ; 
mirando como milagroso el tiempo, el modo y la vista de tres cum- 
bres" (Munoz, " Historia del Nuevo Mundo," 1. vi. § 23). 



Christopher Cohcmbus. 155 

where first they went ashore. Footsteps and 
fishing implements showed that the land was 
inhabited, but the natives kept carefully out of 
sight on shore. When the coasting w^as resumed, 
twenty-four young men, armed with arrows and 
shields, followed the ships in a canoe. Columbus 
tried to encourage them, but they could not be 
induced to come closer, and some music which 
was meant to allure them was understood by them 
as a signal of battle. They immediately dis- 
charged their arrows. Two cross-bow shots dis- 
persed them. 

In these first days of August land was descried 
to the south. It was the first sight of " America." 
The part first seen was the delta of the Orinoco ; 
the part first touched was the coast of Paria. The 
caravels were in the greatest danger of founder- 
ing as they passed through the terrible strait of 
the Serpent's Mouth, between Trinidad and the 
mainland. The natives of Paria were friendly, 
and the Spaniards obtained a great quantity of 
pearls from them. Very reluctantly Columbus 
abandoned this favorite coast ; but his eyesight 
was failing, and he was suffering intensely from 
the gout, so that he says of himself that he w^as 
more exhausted than even after his Cuban explo- 
ration. The men, too, were eager to reach the 
colony, and he felt that his absence had been al- 
ready dangerously prolonged. He had sought in 
vain an opening to the west, and found himself 



156 Christopher Columbus, 

compelled to encounter the foaming waters of 
the northern strait, more formidable even than 
the Serpent's Mouth had been, and named by 
him accordingly the Dragon's Mouth. It was 
the time of the river floods, and the contest be- 
tween the fresh water and the ocean tide, seen for 
the first time, was truly appalling. However, the 
frail vessels passed safely through on the great 
river- wave, and " Columbus gave infinite thanks 
to the Lord." He saw the northern coast of 
Paria stretching away to the west, and moun- 
tains on the far horizon, which almost seemed to 
his imagination to beckon him forward ; but he 
turned from the seductive shore and shaped his 
course resolutely for Hispaniola, meeting some 
new islands on the way. 

Nothing had surprised him more in the recent 
explorations than the prevalence of fresh water, 
fit to drink, in the Gulf of Paria ; and when he 
found leisure to consider the phenomenon, he 
seized upon the grand truth by a simple induc- 
tion. No islands could hold rivers large enough 
to pour into the sea so vast a volume of water; 
therefore some portion at least of the land which 
they had seen ^ to the south and west of Trinidad 

* Irving says : " In 1498 Columbus in his third voyage dis- 
covered the coast of Paria, on terra firma, which he at that time 
imagined to be a great island, but that avast continent lay imme- 
diately adjacent" (Appendix to "Life of Columbus," n. ix.) 
He seems to have been misled by a name, which he gives erro- 
neously, without mentioning his authority, for he observes: 



Christopher Columbus. 157 

belonged to the mainland. It has been received 
as an ascertained fact that Columbus died in the 
belief that he had discovered only the eastern 
extremity of Asia. Whether his later voyages 
in any way altered his earlier notions about 
Cuba it is not easy to determine, but we have 
his own words that this southern continent, 
whence flowed the great mass of water that 
sweetened the surrounding sea, was a land 
hitherto unheard of.^ He certainly would not 
have used such an expression of the Asiatic con- 
tinent. One of two things should follow : either 
this southern continent, in his opinion, stood to 
Asia in much the same relation as Australia is 
now known to do, or all his previous ideas of 
Asia were revolutionized by finding this new 
continent. 

Humboldt is severe upon the ridiculous notion 

" Here he beheld two lofty capes of land opposite to each other, 
one on the island of Trinidad, the other to the west, on the long 
promontory of Paria, which stretches from the mainland and 
forms the northern side of the gulf, but which Columbus mistook 
for an island, and gave it the name of Isla de Gracia" ("Life of 
Columbus," bk. x. c. ii.) Irving fails to remark that Columbus 
tried in vain to find an opening between this cape and the coast 
of Paria, and that he in his own account invariably says Tierra 
de Gracia, not Isla de Gracia. See Martin Fernandez Navarrete, 
" Tercer Viage de Cristobal Colon." 

* " Torno a mi proposito de la tierra de Gracia y rio y lago que 
alii falle, atan grande que mas se le puede llamar mar que lago 
• . . y digo que sino procede del Paraiso terrenal que viene este 
rio y procede de tierra infinita pues al Austro dela cual fasta agora 
no se habido noticia" (Navarrete, " Tercer Viage"). These words 
of Columbus himself seem to prove that he recognized, some 
years before his death, the existence of a large continent which 
was not Asia. 



158 Christopher Columbus, 

that the earth was shaped like a pear; but Co- 
lumbus takes some trouble to explain that he 
does not mean a pear- of irregular shape, and if 
the illustration, even with his explanation, must 
still be deemed a little grotesque, he ought to re- 
ceive credit notwithstanding for having detected 
the protuberance of the equator. Some other 
speculations which he made will be considered 
childish by all to whom the first chapters of 
Genesis are as a fairy tale. He thought that this 
more elevated region of the earth, with its serene 
sky and fruitful soil and mighty rivers, contained 
the lost earthly Paradise, " to which no man 
could ever arrive without the divine permission." 

In the passage to Hispaniola he did not make 
sufficient allowance for the force of the Gulf 
Stream, and to his exceeding surprise he struck 
the island fifty leagues west of the point for which 
he was steering. Having sent a messenger over- 
land, he sailed along the coast towards the new 
settlement which he had told Bartholomew to 
found on the southern coast near the mines of 
Hayna. Columbus was by this time quite wasted 
away with pain and anxiety, nearly blind, and 
yearning for comparative repose. He found only 
fresh cares and deeper sorrow, '' the bread of 
bitterness " of which Jacques Ferrer had spoken. 

Bartholomew hastened to meet him at sea. A 
strong affection united the two brothers. Writing 
a little before his death to his son Diego, Colum- 



Christopher Columbics, 159 

bus says: " To thy brother conduct thyself as the 
elder brother should unto the younger. Thou 
hast no other, and I praise God that this is such 
a one as thou dost need. Ten brothers would 
not be too many for thee. Never have I found a 
better friend than my brothers." "^ 

The state of the island at once drove away all 
thoughts of present repose. Only strong mea- 
sures could avert total ruin. The adelanta- 
do had held his ground nobly, and had shown 
wonderful power and ability, but the difficulties 
which traitors and profligates accumulated round 
him were almost too much for human strength to 
surmount. 

Till the royal appointment arrived at a late 
period in the strife, the enemies of Columbus af- 
fected to consider the adelantado an interloper, 
without authority from the crown. This pre- 
tence, for it was nothing more, weakened his posi- 
tion by giving to open rebellion a thin disguise 
of resistance to usurpation and oppression. 
' And it must be admitted that there was much 
in the government of the two brothers httle cal- 
culated to conciliate men who in too many cases 
were steeped in iniquity. We are tempted in the 
course of Irving's narrative to ask from time to 
time if, amid all the inextricable confusion caused 
by Spanish profligacy and Indian desperation, we 

* living's "Life of Columbus," bk. xviii, c. iii. 



i6o Christopher Columbus, 

can discern in the commander-in-chief any posi- 
tive indications of higher graces than mere supe- 
riority of intelligence or intense rectitude of pur- 
pose. It would not be right to complain of a 
prince for being too great a saint, but there can 
be no doubt that sanctity is sometimes an obsta- 
cle to immediate success. If Columbus could 
have stifled the voice of his conscience, and while 
yet in the first flush of his triumph and the pleni- 
tude of his power could have consented to sacri- 
fice the poor Indians, and could have given free 
leave from the beginning to the Spanish colonists 
to enter upon that course of conquest which their 
immorality soon made a necessity of self-defence, 
the Indians could scarcely have been worse off 
than they actually became, and Columbus would 
have earned a popularity which might have made 
it possible to exercise some general control and 
to repress more startling excesses. But this was 
just what Columbus could not do. He could not 
forget his solicitude for the salvation of souls; he 
could not purchase popularit}^ by allowing repro- 
bates to indulge their wicked desires, to the ruin 
in soul and body of those he came to save ; he 
could not prefer temporal profit and personal ease 
to the interests of his divine Master; he could not 
sanction or connive at conduct which was a libel 
on the Gospel, and made it almost impossible to 
Christianize the islanders — much in the same way 
as the reputed atheism of Englishmen in India has 



Christopher Columbus. i6i 

made it next to impossible ever to convert the 
native population. Above and beyond all other 
considerations ever present to the mind of Colum- 
bus was the spreading of the faith and the prepa- 
ration of the natives for the grace of baptism. 
He found himself, therefore, immediately and 
persistently at cross purposes with men whose 
chief desire was to be rich and to enjoy them- 
selves — selfish, ambitious, vindictive, and incre- 
dibly short-sighted. He ought, perhaps, to have 
understood better the hopelessness of the attempt 
to force men to be good by disciplinary enact- 
ments, and he ought, perhaps, to have been willing 
on occasion to permit a lesser evil in order to 
escape a greater ; but he seemed unable to fathom 
the lower depths of depravity, and he too easily 
trusted men who only wanted the opportunity to 
show their darker nature. " The children of this 
world are wiser in their generation than the chil- 
dren of light." 

He found a conflagration raging. The direct 
object of this paper seems to require a circum- 
stantial account of its origin. When he departed 
with Aguado, the Indians had been awed into 
submission, and all the island had been subjected 
to tribute except the western principality of Xa- 
ragua, governed by the cacique Behechio, whose 
accomplished and really admirable sister, Ana- 
caona, widow of Caonabo, had thrown herself 
upon his protection. It is pleasant to read of the 



1 62 Christopher Columhiis, 

chivalrous reverence with which she was treated. 
The adelantado marched out to reduce the sole 
remaining province, and Behechio advanced with 
forty thousand men to meet him ; but if he had 
contemplated resistance, he quickly changed his 
mind, and yielding to the prajxrs of his sister, 
who had never shared her husband's hostility to 
the Spaniards, he gave a hearty welcome to his 
visitors. Seven years later Xaragua was the 
scene of a massacre as perfidious as that of Glen- 
coe, and more cruel, and Anacaona was car- 
ried off in chains and hanged by order of the 
successor of Columbus. Behechio's counte- 
nance fell when he received intimation that tri- 
bute must be paid, for there was very little gold 
in his district, and he knew that the search for it 
would entail severe labor. With great judgment 
and humanity the adelantado at once commuted 
the requisition of gold into an equivalent of cot- 
ton, hemp, and cassava bread, an accommodation 
which Behechio accepted not only readily but 
gratefully. This incident shows how easily the 
natives could have been converted into loyal sub- 
jects if they had been treated with the kindness 
and consideration and Christian charity which 
Columbus practised and prescribed. 

Nino's shipload of supplies, which, by fraudu- 
lent transactions, was scandalously incomplete at 
starting, and had been further damaged at sea, 
scarcely afforded perceptible relief, and scarcity 



CInnstopher Colimtbus, 163 

of provisions kept the colonists at the new sou- 
thern port of San Domingo in a state of chronic 
irritation. The governor tried to occupy them 
with public works. A dangerous insurrection 
broke out among the natives, headed by Guario- 
nex, cacique of the Vega, who had suffered grie- 
vous wrong. The revolt was suppressed almost 
without bloodshed by the sagacious adelantado, 
who surprised in the night time and carried away 
captive fourteen caciques. He ordered two of 
them, who had forced Guarionex to take up arms, 
to be put to death, but with great generosity he 
restored Guarionex to liberty, finding an excuse 
for his conduct in the treatment which he had en- 
dured ; and he condemned to death the Spaniard 
who had abused the cacique's hospitality, though 
he afterwards remitted the sentence. 

When he went shortly after this to collect the 
tribute in Xaragua, leaving Don Diego in com- 
mand, Francis Roldan, the chief judge of the 
island, who had learned from Aguado to treat his 
benefactor with contempt, and proclaimed that 
his office made him independent of all insular au- 
thority, thought it a favorable opportunity to 
raise the standard of revolt. He was a formida- 
ble rebel, for to vile ingratitude, and, when it 
served his purpose, degrading servility, he joined 
the fearless courage which, in many Spaniards of 
that time, seems the one redeeming trait. He 
was a bold, bad man, as brave as Ojeda, and 



164 CJiristopher Columbiis. 

troubled by no inconvenient scruples. He never 
allowed a thought of duty or conscience or hu- 
manity to interfere with his schemes of ambition. 
A pretext was all he wanted, and it was soon 
found ; for Diego, knowing that mischief was 
stirring, thought it dangerous to leave the caravel 
from Xaragua riding at anchor, and caused it to be 
drawn ashore. This was represented by Roldan 
as an insult and an injury. These Genoese up- 
starts, according to him, not only tyrannized over 
Spanish nobles, but wanted to cut them off from 
all redress. Diego tried to find legitimate em- 
ployment for the mutinous spirits, and having 
commissioned Roldan to collect tribute in the 
Vega, put forty men at his disposal. 

The crafty leader, after securing to his interests 
nearly all his little troop, and dismissing the re- 
fractory remnant, gladly marched off to the Vega, 
where he made common cause with the aggrieved 
caciques. He found Don Bartholomew in power 
on his return, and receiving from him a very curt 
refusal to an insolent demand that the ship should 
be launched, he seceded with seventy men, and 
endeavored to win over the veteran commander 
of Fort Concepcion, but Miguel Ballester was a 
good man and a stanch soldier. Roldan suc- 
ceeded only too well in securing many followers 
by promises of full freedom from all disagreeable 
restraints of law, and Don Bartholomew, who had 
marched to the relief of Fort Concepcion, and 



Clu'istopher Columbus. 165 

Don Diego in Isabella, did not know how far they 
could trust their troops. The rebels felt their 
strength increasing from day to day, and grew 
more insolent and daring, threatening Fort Con- 
cepcion with regular siege ; but just when the 
prospect was most gloomy, on the 3d of Febru- 
ary, 1498, the two precursor caravels under Coro- 
nal came to support legitimate authority. Roldan 
fomented a fresh revolt of Guarionex, but this the 
adelantado promptly suppressed, once more re- 
fusing to take the life of Guarionex, whom he was 
content to detain in prison. It was the policy of 
Roldan and his followers to represent themselves 
to the Indians as their protectors, and they even 
imposed upon Anacaona, and being graciously 
received in Xaragua, tried to make the most of 
their brief season of impunity. The three cara- 
vels which Columbus had detached from his 
squadron at the Canaries arrived off Xaragua, and 
Roldan had the address to seduce some of the 
men, and to obtain supplies. The commanders, 
however, soon found out the truth, and while 
Carvajal stayed behind to try to bring Roldan 
back to his allegiance, the other two sailed for 
San Domingo. Roldan began to be anxious to 
escape from his dangerous position, and by an in- 
genious distinction declared that he was in arms 
not against the admiral, but against Don Bartho- 
lomew, and that when the admiral returned he 
would submit. Columbus on his arrival empow- 



1 66 Christopher Cohmthis. 

ered Miguel Ballester to treat with the rebels, 
who came in a tumultuary force to the Ve- 
ga, ostensibly to state their grievances. They 
laughed at the offer of pardon, for the very 
offering of it was a sign of weakness. No one 
knew this better than Columbus himself, but a 
review of his troops had shown him unmistakably 
that he could not risk a battle. Roldan seems to 
have been favorably impressed by an affectionate 
letter from Columbus, recalling him to his duty ; 
but he was no longer his own master, and had to 
consider the wishes of the turbulent band, who 
had only obeyed him as long as he gave them 
their own way. 

Columbus delayed some caravels which were on 
the point of starting, in the hope of being able to 
induce some of the malcontents to embark. He 
wrote to the sovereigns to tell them of the deplor- 
able state of the island, and to complain of the 
men who had brought it about, and he asked per- 
mission in the dearth of laborers to employ for 
two years longer the forced service of prisoners 
of war. This unlucky suggestion displeased Isa- 
bella much, for it came to give color to the false- 
hood industriously circulated by Fonseca's fac- 
tion that Columbus and his brothers were the ob- 
stinate oppressors of the natives, compassion for 
whose unmerited sufferings was among the mo- 
tives of the late insurrection. The best proof 
that the assertion was pure calumny is found in 



Christopher Cohunbiis, 167 

the conduct of such men as Alonzo de Ojeda, 
shortly to be noticed, for we learn therefrom how 
Fonseca could excuse in his friends the open 
traffic in slaves shamelessly captured without a 
shadow of right, while he was loud in his condem- 
nation of Columbus for being willing to enslave 
prisoners of war. 

Failing in his endeavor to persuade the insur- 
gents to depart from the island, Columbus w^as re- 
duced to the most humiliating concessions. He 
had among other things to reinstate Roldan in his 
office of chief judge. The storm-clouds still 
gathered above him. A new insurrection of the 
natives called the adelantado from his side. 
Word was brought that Ojeda, once his loyal offi- 
cer, now an independent explorer and slave-mer- 
chant, furnished by Fonseca in violation of confi- 
dence and honor, with the latest chart of the 
Gulf of Paria, had landed on the island with hos- 
tile intentions, and had the effrontery to claim as 
from the crown the government of the colony ; 
and, worst of all, a letter came from the sovereigns 
showing plainly that his truthful narrative had 
not prevailed against the slanders of men who 
were on the spot and could watch their oppor- 
tunity. He was, in his own words, '' absent, en- 
vied, and a foreigner in the land." 

His heart sank within him. Such fierce trials 
following close upon the exhaustion of a long voy- 
age, and accompanied by sickness and bodily 



1 68 Christopher Cohcmbus. 

pain, would have subdued a less resolute spirit 
long before. It was Christmas day, 1499. In his 
nervous prostration he was seized with a sudden 
dread of assassination, certainly not groundless 
considering the character of his assailants, and was 
strongly tempted to take flight with his brothers 
from the island. Then he heard, or fancied that 
he heard, a voice saying to him : " Man of little 
faith, fear not, it is I." 

He recovered confidence, and the state of things 
rapidly mended. Roldan, whom from sheer ne- 
cessity he sent to encounter Ojeda, entered warm- 
ly into his new mission, and seemed to find a 
pleasure in exerting for the defence of law and 
order all the vigor and courage and address 
which had given such force to his rebellion. He 
was soon at open war with his former followers, 
but, with Roldan changed from an enemy to a 
friend, Columbus was able to strike terror once 
more. Adrian de Moxica, convicted of conspiracy 
to assassinate both Roldan and Columbus, was 
captured with his companions by Roldan, who 
sent a messenger to Fort Concepcion, where 
Columbus then was, to learn his pleasure with re- 
gard to the prisoners. Columbus with tears 
signed the order for the execution of Moxica, and 
the rest were condemned to exile or imprison- 
ment. Led out to execution on the ramparts at 
San Domingo, the wretched man displayed the 
most abject terror, and, to gain a little time, refused 



Christopher Columbtis. 169 

to make his confession, till at last Roldan lost all 
patience and ordered hihi to be hanged from the 
battlement/'^ 

Hispaniola was fast recovering its prosperity, 
and Columbus had sent a long and careful account 
of all the disturbances to the sovereigns, and was 
once more beginning to promise himself a season 
of repose, when Francis Bobadilla arrived as 
ro3'al commissioner to enquire into the state of 
the colony. He came with the fullest powers, 
but these were not to be used, or even made 
known, except in emergency. He was to ex- 
amine into the conduct of the admiral, and to 
supersede him if he found him really guilty. Fer- 
dinand deserves the credit of this strange device, 
which promoted impartial judicial enquiry by 
making it the immediate interest of the judge to 
condemn the accused. Bobadilla, like Aguado, 
was weak and vain. He came with his mind 
made up. Columbus was prejudged, and 
confirmation of his guilt was all the commis- 
sary cared to have. He was provided with 
three letters of carefully graduated intensity, 
the most imperious of which commanded Col- 
umbus in the name of the sovereigns to deliver 
up all fortresses and ships ; and besides these let- 

* Irving, following Herrera, wrongly attributes this execution 
Vv'ithout the Sacraments to Columbus, who, by his own account, 
was absent on the occasion, and hearing afterwards of Roldan's 
unseemly haste, was filled with grief. 



170 Christopher Cohtmbus, 

ters he was the bearer of a brief but significant 
missive to the admiral. Bobadilia did not meet 
with ready submission, and exhausted his own 
three letters before he could persuade Don Diego, 
who was in command at St. Domingo in the ab- 
sence of the admiral at Fort Concepcion, that he 
was not an audacious adventurer like Ojeda, 
whose similar claims were still fresh in the memo- 
ry of all. Columbus, to whom the lightest com- 
mand of the sovereigns had ever been a law, was 
painfully embarrassed ; for, though it seemed that 
Bobadilia had been really despatched by the 
sovereigns, the amazing insolence of his beha- 
vior made it natural to suppose that, like Agua- 
do, he had lost his self-possession, and was dis- 
posed to exaggerate his powers. When he 
saw with his own eyes the cruel little note 
which, without one word of regret or one sooth- 
ing phrase, cancelled the rights secured by solemn 
treaty to him and his heirs, he yielded at once to 
Bobadilla's peremptory summons. The letter ran : 

*' Don Christopher Colon, our admiral of the 
ocean sea, we have charged the Commander Fran- 
cis de Bobadilia, bearer of these presents, to make 
known to you in our name certain matters with 
which he is entrusted. We pray you to yield to 
him faith and credit, and to act accordingly." 

Bobadilla's first act on arriving had been to set 
free the state prisoners. He then promised re- 
dress of all irrievances, and having established 



Christopher ColumbiLS, 171 

himself ill the house of the late Viceroy, spoke of 
him with contempt on every occasion, and declar- 
ed himself empowered to punish him. 

Columbus came humbly in his Franciscan dress 
with his breviary in his hand, and he and Don 
Dieg-o were immediately thrown into chains and 
confined in separate caravels. The outrage was 
so glaring- that it was not easy to find any one 
willing to incur the infamy of fastenmg the chains 
upon the discoverer of the New World. Boba- 
dilla, being very much afraid of the gallant ade- 
lantado, who was with some troops in Xarngua, 
had the meanness to ask the injured admiral to 
write to his brother. Columbus persuaded him 
to come at once and surrender himself to legiti- 
mate authorit3\ He obeyed, of course, and was 
forthwith put into irons on a third caravel. Co- 
lumbus was, moreover, subjected to actual ill- 
treatment. Though in such weak health, he was 
deprived of a part of his clothing, and was insuffi- 
ciently fed. 

Accusations poured in as fast as even Bobadilla 
himself could wish. Every ignoble wretch had 
something to say against Columbus, either to 
gratify some personal pique or to please the new 
governor. The judicial induction was of the sim- 
plest. Crimes without number or measure had 
too truly been committed. Columbus and his 
brothers, directly or indirectly, had caused them 
all, for they had all occurred under their adminis- 



172 Christopher Columbus, 

tration. Therefore Columbus and his brothers 
were responsible, and no punishment could equal 
their deserts. A huge budget of misdeeds was 
soon collected (of every kind save one, let it be 
said once more), and Bobadilla terminated his en- 
quiry. The sentence had yet to be pronounced. 
A man who had shown himself capable of going 
as far as Bobadilla had gone might be expected 
to go a little farther, and Columbus prepared for 
death. "^ 

The young Alonzo de Vallejo, a friend of Fon- 
seca, but also a friend of Las Casas, came with a 
guard of soldiers. Columbus thought that they 
had come to conduct him to the scaffold. '* Val- 
lejo, where are you taking me?" *' I have to 
take your excellency on board the Gorda, which 
starts at once." Columbus thought he was hu- 
manely concealing the truth. " Vallejo, is it as 
you say ? " f 

The three brothers being all on board the Gorda 
shackled like malefactors, the captain put to sea 
at the beginning of October, 1500. The passage 
was short and easy. Vallejo felt deep sympathy 



* Balbao, the discoverer of the Pacific, perhaps after Columbus 
the most lo3^al and virtuous of the great navigators, was actually 
put to death in 1517 by Pedrarias Davila, a royal commissioner 
sent out by Fonseca. He was just startin,:? with four ships to sail 
in the direction of Peru, and anticipate the achievement of Pi- 
zarro, when he was recalled, and, after a mock trial, executed 
by his worthless rival (Robertson, " History of America," bk. iii. 
an. 1517)- 

f Las Casas, " Hi.-toria do las Indian," bk. i. c. clxxx. 



Christopher Cohimhiis. 173 

for his noble prisoners, and they were no sooner 
fairly at sea, than he respectfully proposed to re- 
lease Columbus from personal restraint, but he 
would not hear of it. It was in the name of his 
sovereigns that he had been chained, and he 
would not permit any surreptitious alleviation of 
his sufferings. Wasted by disease and acute pain, 
worn out by labor which never brought repose, ac- 
cused of causinor evils which he had done his best 
to prevent, tortured by the thought that the poor 
Indians, whose souls he would have poured out 
his life-blood to save, were being taught the vices 
of Christians instead of the doctrines of Chris- 
tianity, and instead of being led by the hand to 
the waters of baptism were being driven farther 
away from the love of Jesus Christ and the hope 
of heaven, knowing in the bitterness of his soul 
that the testimony of lazy vagabonds and convict- 
ed robbers was preferred to his, wounded to the 
heart by the defection of those who should have 
been most loyal, and forsaken at last even by Isa- 
bella the Catholic, his spirit was still unbroken, 
and he was as great in the day of adversity as he 
had been in the day of exaltation. 

He solaced his confinement on the voya_2:e by 
writing to the intimate friend of Isabella, Dona 
Juana de la Torre, nurse of Prince Juan. One 
passage must be quoted, for it shows his own un- 
shaken faith in his spiritual mission, and the 
source of his serenity in the complete assurance- 



174 Ch^^istopher Columbus, . 

that the persecution which had fallen upon him 
was only an episode of the long conflict between 
" the world " and Christ : 

" If it is a new thing for me to complain of the 
world, at least there is nothing new in its mode of 
treating me. It has forced me a thousand times 
to join battle, and I have always stood my ground 
till now, when neither good sword nor wise coun- 
sel can help me. It has cruelly flung me down. 
. . . The hope in Him who made us all sustains 
me: his aid is ever near. Not long since, when I 
was in still deeper dejection, he raised me up with 
his all-powerful arm, saying to me, ' O man of lit- 
tle faith, arise ! it is I, fear not ! ' . . . God made 
me his envoy to the new heaven and the new 
earth, of which he spoke in the Apocalypse by 
the mouth of St. John, after having spoken of 
them by the mouth of Isaias, and he made known 
to me the place where they were to be found. 
All were incredulous. But the Lord gave to my 
sovereign lady, the Queen, the spirit of under- 
standing, endowed her with the courage needed, 
and bestowed the whole inheritance on her, his 
daughter well-beloved.'* 

This letter was read to Isabella at Granada be- 
fore the portentous researches of Bobadilla came 
to hand. She at least had never meant that her 
old friend should be so treated, and in indignant 
haste she despatched a courier to Cadiz to bid 
the matristrate strike off his chains. She sent also 



Christopher Cohunbits, 175 

a letter to Columbus, signed by herself and Ferdi- 
nand, deploring the shameful misconstruction of 
the royal orders, and inviting him to court at 
once. His enemies had in their blind malice out- 
stepped the limits of discretion, for the enormity 
of the outrage spoke to the hearts of all honest 
men and made them execrate the persecutors 
who had contrived it. The third homeward voy- 
ao-e of Columbus from the New World, which he 
had given to ungrateful Spain, remains still one 
of the lessons of history. 

The cold-hearted Ferdinand was alarmed. The 
name of Christopher Columbus was alread}^ 
known in every land, and the sovereigns would 
have to answer before the Europe of that da3% 
and at the bar of histor}^ for what, without some 
elaborate exculpation, would certainly be taken 
as an instance of ingratitude almost without 
parallel. Ferdinand eagerly disowned the acts 
of his subordinates, but his subsequent conduct 
shows that it was only their incautious zeal which 
he really resented. 

When Bobadilla's informations were presented 
for perusal, they also by their inordinateness con- 
veyed an impression contrary to the intention of 
the framers of them. Columbus and his brothers 
were received at court with every demonstration 
of respect, and in a solemn audience the sove- 
reigns strove to make public reparation. A few 
days later the queen admitted him to a private in- 



176 Christopher Columbus, 

terview, and her tears flowed in abundance. That 
was a reparation worthy of acceptance, and to 
know that Isabella had been undeceived was the 
greatest earthly consolation in the gift of heaven. 
She pi'omised adequate redress, restoration to 
office, reinstatement in all rights and privileges, 
the immediate recall of Bobadilla, and the repeal 
of all his senseless innovations, which in a few 
months of pompous misrule, based upon the de- 
sire to win the favor of the colonists by inviting 
them to contrast the present indulgence with 
former severity of discipline, had effectually dis- 
sipated the returning prosperity of Hispaniola. 
The reappointment of Columbus to the govern- 
ment of the colony was to be delayed a short 
time as a matter of prudence, and a provisional 
commandant sent cut. Isabella, we cannot doubt, 
honestly intended to carry out her promises, but 
Ferdinand had fully made up his mind that Co- 
lumbus should not go back to Hispaniola, if he 
could prevent it. The island had not yet been 
made profitable to his treasury ; for that at least, 
he thought, Columbus surely was to blame. 




CHAPTER V. 



Columbus now drew up a formal complaint 
against Bobadilla, exposing the vices of his ad- 
ministration, and in a separate document he pre- 
sented the justification in detail of his own con- 
duct and that of his brothers. He reminds the 
Council of State of his great services and of the 
strange recompense which he had received for 
them; he adjures 'them as good Christians to ex- 
amine into the terms of his appointment, which 
had received such solemn sanction ; to reflect 
how he, a foreigner, had given his service to 
Spain with such hearty good-will that he has 
been almost always at a distance from wife and 
children for years ; and then he prays them to 
observe that his devotedness has been rewarded 
in the decline of life by the spoliation of all 
things. He pleaded his own cause with such 
force of argument that the council and the sove- 
reigns again, as formerly, approved of all his sug- 
gestions for the government of the colony, and 
cancelled the contrary enactments of his weak- 

177 



178 ChristopJiC7' Columbus. 

minded successor, who had stooped so low as to 
encourage by his own w^ords extortion and crimi- 
nal excess, reminding- his dependents that they 
would do well to make use ot their present op- 
portunities. 

This is the place to vindicate the memory ot 
Columbus from some of the very many false ac- 
cusations brought against him. The charge of 
cruelty does not merit special refutation, for his 
whole career disproves it. If it did need special 
refutation, we might rest content with the single 
remark that the most flagrant instance of cruelty 
adduced by his enemies was the execution of 
Adrian de Moxica, of which an account has been 
already given. 

The celebrated reparthnientos require a few 
words of explanation. It may be premised that 
upon no single point does the conduct of Colum- 
bus contrast more favorably with that of his suc- 
cessors. Irving, speaking of the service of Indi- 
ans permitted in the treaty which was patched up 
with Roldan, the self-styled protector of the na- 
tives, says : 

''This, as has been observed, was the com- 
mencement of the disastrous system of reparti- 
mientos^ or distributions of the Indians. When 
Bobadilla administered the government, he con- 
strained the caciques to furnish a certain number 
of Indians to each Spaniard, for the purpose of 
working the mines, where they were emplojed 



Christopher Columbus, 179 

like beasts of burden " (Irving's " Life of Colum- 
bus," bk. xvii. c. i.) 

Prescott says : 

" In this desperate rebellion (of Roldan) all the 
interests of the communit}^ were neglected. The 
mines, wliich were just beginning to yield a gold- 
en harvest, remained un wrought. The unfortu- 
nate nativ^es were subjected to the most inhuman 
oppression. . . . The admiral exhausted art, 
negotiation, entreaty, force, and succeeded at 
last in patching up a specious reconciliation by 
such concessions as essentially impaired his own 
authority. Among these was the grant of large 
tracts of land to the rebels, with permission to the 
proprietor to employ an allotted number of the 
natives in its cultivation. This was the origin of 
the celebrated system of repartimientos^ which 
subsequently led to the foulest abuses that ever 
disgraced humanity " (Prescott, '' Ferdinand and 
Isabella," vol. ii. p. 2, c. viii.) 

It is true that the rcpartimientos sprang from 
the feudal system which Columbus established, 
but they sprang from it as a perversion, not as a 
development. He never would consent to en- 
slave an unoffending Indian, and, though he 
sufficiently shared the ideas of his time to believe 
that enemies taken with arms in their hands for- 
feited their right of freedom, he himself personal- 
ly did not possess one slave, whilst Fonseca, with 
all his virtuous declaiming, possessed two hun- 



i8o Christopher Columbus. 

dred. * What he did permit was : first, the 
forced labor of prisoners of war ; and secondly, 
the commutation of tribute in gold or in produce 
into labor to be furnished by the caciques, who 
were to order their subjects to help in the public 
works for one or two days in the week, and thus, 
remaining all the time free subjects of their own 
native princes, to pay in labor, instead of in 
the produce of labor, the taxes which these 
princes had a right to claim. The arrange- 
ment as it was made and understood by Colum- 
bus constituted no infringement of personal 
liberty. The repartiniientos, on the other hand, 
were distributions of Indians, simply as Indians, 
without any pretence of either penal servitude or 
feudal service, and they were the invention not 
of Columbus the accused, but of Bobadilla the 
accuser, f 

He has been accused of incapacity for govern- 
ment, but the proofs are not satisfactory. Success 
and failure are not infallible indications of virtue, 
and if they were, Columbus might bear even that 
test, for with the same unmanageable materials 
his successors failed more fatally than he. Boba- 
dilla was carrying all things to destruction when 
his short reign terminated. Ovando kept the 
Spaniards in some kind of order, but it was by 

* Le Pere Charlevoix, " Histoire de St. Dominique," 1, v. p. 
337, cited by M. Roselly de Lorgiies. 

f See " Christophe Colomb," t. ii. p. 135. 



Christopher Columbus. i8i 

ruthlessly sacrificing the Indians. He has been 
blamed for choosing bad officers, as, for example, 
Pedro Margarite and Roldan, betraying thereby 
ignorance of character. What then shall we say 
of Ferdinand and Isabella, who chose Aguado 
and Bobadilla and Ovando, Fonseca and Soria? 
Even the most questionable of all his public acts, 
the transportation of criminals to the colony, had 
large excuse in the crying necessities of the occa- 
sion. Few men indeed, perhaps only saints, have 
escaped like Columbus with unwounded consci- 
ence from such tumultuous scenes. 

Nicolas Ovando, commander of Lares, was ap- 
pointed provisional governor of the islands and 
continent. He seemed a man well suited for high 
office, and enjoyed the esteem of all parties, the 
king and queen and Fonseca included. His fleet 
was soon ready, and was larger than any that had 
been given to Columbus, consisting of thirty-two 
ships. It is scarcely rash to surmise that Ferdi- 
nand w^ould not have provided so magnificent a 
convoy if the governor himself had been starting 
instead of his substitute, as Ovando was officially 
announced to be. 

Columbus found at last the rest for which he 
had sighed so long. That third voyage, which 
had terminated to all outward seeming most dis- 
astrously, had really more than answered all his 
prayers. He had sailed in search of Asia, and 
had found America. To him who had been 



1 82 Christopher Columbus. 

chosen to discov^er the first land in the West, had 
been granted also the first sight of the great con- 
tinent, though this was in 1498, and ah-eady in 
1495''^ the royal sanction had been given to pri- 
vate adventure. It is strange that in those three 
years no bold mariner was able to wrest from 
Columbus that secondar}^ glory. f 

He was perfectly aware of the great results 
which he had achieved, and his active and vigor- 
ous mind, no longer occupied w4th ten thousand 
petty details of anxious government, reverted at 
once to the master-thought which gave epic unity 
to his entire career, and in deep meditation in the 
Franciscan convents at Granada and Zubia he 
traced the connection, to him so natural and so 
intimate, between the discovery of new nations 
and the reconquest of Jerusalem. He had strongly 
grasped the fundamental truth that the actions of 
men have their meaning and value from reference 
to the life of God incarnate. The only thing 
worthy of Christian ambition was to spread the 
kingdom of Christ. Dynastic wars were not 
worth one thought ; but when it was proposed to 
rescue the holy places from the infidel, a Chris- 
tian, Columbus supposed, might well be glad to 
spend money and labor and life. He was de- 
voured with the zeal of God's house. He saw in 

* Irving's " Life of Columbus," bk. xiv. c ii. 
f Amerigo Vespucci was with Oieda, when by the help of the 
charts of Columbus he steered for Paria in f^qq. 



Christopher Cohunbiis, ■ 183 

his own name the " Christ-bearer," a symbol of 
his work. Whether he strove to extend the 
boundaries of the Church, or to restore to the 
Church her former possessions, whether he labor- 
ed to convert poor ignorant pagans to the know- 
ledge of Christ, or to wrest from obstinate ene- 
mies the objects of Christian reverence, he was 
always thinking how to advance the cause of him 
whom in more than name he carried. That this 
is no fancy of his Catholic admirers his own writ- 
ings abundantly prove. The wealth of the Indies, 
to follow his train of thought, would ensure the 
recovery of the Holy Sepulchre ; the recovery of 
the Holy Sepulchre would increase charity, and 
send evangelists to the Indies. Distant nations 
must be added to the fold, and Christians must be 
free once more to worship Christ at Bethlehem 
and Calvary. The grand idea which filled the 
mind and claimed the wlK)le soul of Columbus 
was to make a highway round the earth, and bring 
the nations in willing homage to the feet of Jesus 
Christ, reigning once more in Jerusalem of the 
Christians. 

He could not 3^et march against the Moslem, 
but he could continue his progress round the 
world; and thus very shortly we find him again, 
before he had recruited his strength, making ap- 
plication to the sovereigns to be sent on a fresh 
expedition. The indomitable old man would 
rather die in harness than lead an idle life. Fro- 



184 Christopher Columbus, 

testant historians show their inability to appreciate 
that profoundly religious character which they 
universally ascribe to Columbus, when they can 
only see in this desire of a fourth voyage the love 
of glory and the fear of being eclipsed by rival 
navigators. He himself solemnly asserts that 
these were not his motives, and he deserves to be 
believed. He spent nine months in Granada in 
trying in vain to obtain payment of arrears for 
himself and those dependent upon him. Every- 
where he obtained ready promises, but Ferdi- 
nand's indifference and Fonseca's covert opposi- 
tion made the actual recovery of money a very 
tedious business, for he did not choose to tease 
his royal mistress with memorials of private 
grievances. In his too plentiful leisure moments 
he fed his enthusiasm upon the prophecies of Holy 
Writ, and composed a treatise, of which the rough 
and mutilated sketch (or caricature), alone pre- 
served till now, can give no real idea. Hum- 
boldt terms the work itself, which he never saw, 
"extravagant," but it would be interesting to 
know in what light he regarded the prophecies 
themselves. 

In the course of his meditations another great 
intuition flashed upon the mind of Columbus. 
His conclusions were sometimes more correct 
than his premises. The great current setting 
westward from the Gulf of Paria must find an 
outlet somewhere, he supposed to the west, and 



ChristopJier Cohunbits. 185 

Irving" says that he had fixed in his mind the re- 
gion of the Isthmus of Darien for the probable lo- 
caUty. He was mistaken, as it happened, but the 
guess ran strangely near the truth. It was to 
find this strait, and having passed through it, to 
continue his voyage round the world, that he now 
proposed to resume the thread of his discoveries. 
The design found much favor with Ferdinand, 
for he envied Portugal her lucrative Asiatic ex- 
peditions. Columbus thoroughly distrusted Fer- 
dinand, and felt that in the event of Isabella's 
death all his past services would be forgotten, 
and all solemn conventions would be disregarded, 
as far at least as public opinion might permit; 
and that if, as was not improbable, he himself 
should lose his life on this voyage, his children, 
v^ith a crowd of bitter enemies of their father 
round them, would be defrauded of their rights, 
and that in consequence his grand designs for the 
service of the Church would perish with himself. 
He took the most extraordinary precautions. 
He was, as we have seen, in actual poverty at 
this time, living upon his "expectations" of jus- 
tice and his claims of unpaid revenue. He wrote 
an anxious letter to the sovereigns, recommend- 
ing to them his children and his brothers after his 
death. His evident solicitude gave real pain to 
Isabella, and once more all his rights were 
solemnly guaranteed by a joint letter of the sove- 
reigns. Even this could not calm his fears. Isa- 



1 86 Cln^istophe}^ Cohnnbtis. 

bella's protestations were superfluous, Ferdi- 
nand's worthless. Columbus consigned a copy 
of all the rights conceded to himself and his heirs 
to the care of the Genoese Ambassador, and 
asked him to let his eldest son Diego know 
where it was to be found. Another copy he left 
with the Franciscans, and another with the monks 
of St. Jerome. He drew up, moreover, written 
instructions to help Diego in making good his 
claims, which were sure to be contested. He 
also wrote to the Holy Father at this time, express- 
ing his grief at having been unable to relate to 
him with his own lips the story of the enterprise, 
originally undertaken and consistently prosecuted 
for the glory of God and the diffusion of the faith. 
He speaks, of course, of the Holy Sepulchre, and 
is sure that Satan is to blame for the thwarting of 
his pious purpose, which will require money and 
power, and he now possessed neither. 

He prayed that his son Fernando might be per- 
mitted to accompany him on the expedition, and 
Isabella gave the boy a naval commission. Bar- 
tholomew was at first disposed to hold back. 
Good Christian though he was, he thought that 
the ill-usage which they had experienced went 
beyond human endurance, and he was in no mood 
to continue to serve ungrateful Spain. But the 
sight of his noble brother, still serene and brave, 
untamed by disappointment, unconquered by op- 
position, faithful to the end, made him ashamed 



Chrisiophej'' Columbus. 187 

of his weakness. He would not let his brother go 
alone, just when most he needed the help of a 
strong arm and a loving heart. Don Diego 
obeyed another vocation. He had led in all 
the turmoil of Hispaniola a life worthy of the 
most sacred calling, and he now recognized the 
will of God, and began his studies for the priest- 
hood. 

Columbus proposed to circumnavigate the 
globe, and demanded four vessels and provisions 
for two years. He started on the 9th of May, 
1502, and intended to sail to Jamaica on his way 
to the imaginary strait. He had asked permis- 
sion to call at Hispaniola, but had been forbidden 
to do so. The prohibition seems to have been 
reasonable, forOvando had only just arrived, and 
the presence of Columbus at such a conjuncture 
would be sure to create fresh difficulties. The 
passage was most prosperous, and in sixteen days 
after leaving the Canaries they arrived at the 
Caribbee Islands. One of the four vessels had 
proved upon trial manifestly unfit for the long 
voyage which was in contemplation, and Columbus 
saw no other course in the emergency but to beg 
Ovando to give him another in exchange out of the 
large fleet at his disposal. He felt sure that the 
unforeseen necessity would justif)^, in the opinion 
of the sovereigns, this infringement of their orders. 
As he approached San Domingo, another more 
imperious reason forced him to appeal to Ovando. 



1 88 Christopher Co him bus. 

He was without an equal in his power of reading 
the signs of the weather, and though to an ordi- 
nary observer there seemed no cause of apprehen- 
sion, he knew that a storm was comirg. He 
sent the captain of the faulty ship to try to make 
his own bargain with the governor, and at the 
same time to ask for shelter in the approaching 
storm. Ovando, acting upon orders, returned a 
flat refusal. There is not sufficient reasca for ac- 
cusing him of actir.g Wita cruelty on this occa- 
sion, for he never meant to refuse shelter in a 
storm. His fault was that he paid so little 
deference to the opinion of a man who, even if 
his tried skill could not win faith for his pro- 
phecy, still for his great achievements deserved 
at least a respectful hearing. 

Of the fleet which had escorted Ovando, eigh- 
teen ships were on the point of returning to 
Spain. The shelter which a public enemy might 
have claimed had been denied to Columbus in 
the island which he had given to Spain, and of 
which he was still virtually the governor, accord- 
ing to the repeated assurance of the sovereigns, 
for Ovando was, in a curious fashion certainly, 
only holding it in trust for him ; yet, smarting as 
he must have been under the injurious and insult- 
ing reply, he sent again to beg Ovando at least to 
look to the safety of his own fleet, and to retard 
its departure for a week. Some derided his fears, 
others pretended to think that the storm Avas a 



Christopher Columbus, 189 

cunning' invention. The fleet put to sea. Only 
one ship, the smallest and the worst prepared, to 
which h^d been co-^fided a portion of the revenue 
due to Columbus, reached Spain ; two or thr^3 
ships put back disabled into port, and all the 
others foundered in the storm. Roldan and Boba- 
dilla went down with poor Guarionex. An im- 
mense sum of ill-got*" ^n gold, which was meant to 
cover a multitude of sins before Ferdinand's tri- 
bunal, would not plead Bobadilla's cause so well 
before the judgment-seat of God. 

Columbus put the ship which, from its condi- 
tion, was in the greatest danger under the skilled 
command of Don Bartholomew, and then ran for 
a little haven on the coast. The storm broke 
with ungovernable fury ; the ships were sepa- 
rated. Columbus kept under shelter; the other 
captains would not trust themselves near the 
shore. They gave themselves up for lost, but 
though they met the full fury of the storm, by 
good seamanship and the blessing of Heaven they 
carried their ships safely through. The admiral's 
own ship received no damage of any kind. This 
complete destruction of a noble fleet, with the 
very marked exception of one ship, and the pre- 
servation, as complete as it was beyond all pos- 
sible expectation, of the four caravels which had 
been left to face the storm as best they might, 
may, no doubt, have been only a freak of the 
unruly elements ; but it looks exceedingly like a 



igo Christopher Cohmihns. 

significant lesson to those whom it most con- 
cerned — a judgment to the rebels, a warning to 
the governor, an encouragement to the much- 
persecuted tertiary of St. Francis. Besides, the 
prediction was really very surprising. With 
all the improved weather-wisdom of our times, 
not many men with reputations to lose \vould 
have spoken as confidently as Columbus did, 
some days beforehand, of a storm of which to 
the uninitiated no symptoms whatever had then 
appeared. 

The four caravels, when the storm subsided, 
lingered for a few days on the coast of Hispaniola. 
The men required rest, and three of the vessels 
had been severely strained. The crews, who had 
murmured against Columbus when on his account 
they saw themselves driven from harbor to perish 
at sea, now felt themselves for his sake under the 
special protection of heaven, and were nothing 
loth to continue the voyage. When the sea was 
calm they steered towards Jamaica, but were car- 
ried by the currents along the south of Cuba, and 
Columbus resolved without loss of time to bend 
his course to the strait which he expected to find. 
From that time forward it was one long battle 
with winds and waves. Old age was beginning 
to make itself felt, and the admiral became very 
ill ; but full of the sense of his deep responsi- 
bihty, he had his bed placed in a house on deck, 
from which he could direct the course and super- 



CJirisiopher Columbus. 191 

intend all arrangements which the public safety 
required. 

After much beating- about, the little fleet ar- 
rived at the island of Guanaja, near the coast of 
Honduras. A large canoe, probably from Yuca- 
tan, arrived at the same time, rowed by twenty- 
five Indians, and carrying a cacique with his 
family, and a valuable cargo consisting of natural 
products and various articles of skilful workman- 
ship. These visitors from the mainland showed 
no fear of the Spaniards. The construction of the 
canoe, the character of the cargo, the behavior 
of the men manifested a higher order of intelli- 
gence and civilization than had been yet seen in 
Txwy native tribe of the New World. Columbus 
by his interpreter made many enquiries, and was 
deeply interested in the account he received of 
the great and rich country to the west ; but not 
even that golden prize could tempt him to re- 
nounce the predetermined object of his voyage, 
and surrender so soon his search after the all- 
important strait which was to disclose to Spain a 
pathway round the world, and give a suitable 
completeness to his own heaven-appointed work. 
Irving says: "Within a day or two he would 
have arrived at Yucatan ; the discovery of Mexico 
and the other opulent countries of New Spain 
would have necessarily followed ; the Southern 
Ocean would have been disclosed to him, and a 
succession of splendid discoveries would have 



192 Christopher Columbus, 

shed fresh glory on his declining age, instead of 
its sinking amidst gloom, neglect, and disappoint- 
ment." * 

All this might have been had God so willed ; 
but if once we give free scope to conjecture, we 
ought to admit into our calculations the possibi- 
lity of unfavorable results. The ships might not 
have reached Yucatan at all; eLher in going or 
returning the sickly crews, in their crazy skiffs, 
might have perished on the way ; or they might 
have failed to penetrate far into the interior, and 
the Southern Ocean and the Empire of Mexico 
might not have been known a da}' sooner for all 
the discovery of Yucatan, or, in fine, Columbus 
might have died, for he was very ill. 

Be that as it may, Columbus steered south for 
the nearest mainland at Cape Honduras. He 
was himself unable to move, but as it was Sunday, 
and the eve of the Feast of the Assumption, the 
adelantado and the captains and many of the 
men went ashore to hear Mass.f Then followed 
a weary struggle against headwinds and con- 
trary currents, with continual rain and water- 
spouts, and such dreadful lightning that death 
and the end of the world were in the thoughts of 

* " Life of Columbus," bk. xv. c. ii. 

f The first Mass on the mainland was said on the coast of Paria 
in the previous voyage. The honor of having planted the first 
cross in the New World, by which possibly the mainland of 
America is meant, is claimed for a Father of the Order of Mercy 
(S. Mariae de Mercede Captivorum). 



Christopher Cohnnbus, 193 

all. Father Alexander, a Franciscan, the only 
priest, administered the sacraments to all on the 
same ship with him, and in the other ships the 
men made their confessions to one another, and 
waited for death. '^ Columbus says that the 
stoutest hearts quailed, and that he had never 
known a tempest so violent and so long endur- 
ing, and that in sixty days they had advanced only 
seventy leagues. He felt his own end approach- 
ing, and was distressed to think that he was 
directly responsible for the death of his brother 
and his son, whom he had persuaded to bear him 
company. At last he arrived at the point where 
the coast bends south, and a short respite of fair 
wind and clear sky was granted. After running 
down the Mosquito Coast, and discovering the 
great wealth of Veragua, and losing a boat with 
its crew, he was painfully toiling along the 
Isthmus of Panama against a contrary wind. 

He had now passed the spot where, by his cal- 
culations, the great strait ought to have been 
found. He had persevered in his gallant effort 
till he saw that he was in error, and as he could 
not measure the extent of his error, and thought 
that possibly the strait might be still very far 
away, it seemed to him wise to relinquish a 

*" For eighty-eight days the dreadful tempest never left me: 
my people were very sickly, all contrite for their sins, and many 
with promises to enter religion, and not one v/ithout vows of 
pilgrimage and the like" (Navarrete, " LeUer to the Sove- 
reigns "). 



194 Christopher Columbus, 

search which neither ships nor men were in con- 
dition to carry out safely, and retracing his 
course to explore the rich province of Veragua. 
He had scarcely changed his route when a wind 
from the west, which they had so long sighed for, 
came, as if on purpose to dispute their passage. 

Irving mentions the incident of a waterspout 
which the sailors fancied they had averted by 
reciting the Gospel of St. John. Las Casas says 
nothing about the prayers of the sailors, but he 
says that the admiral made the sign of the cross 
with his sword, repeating with loud voice the 
opening sentences of the Gospel of St. John, and 
that the waterspout, which was coming straight 
towards them, turned aside. 

On the 6th of Januarj^ 1503, the caravels ar- 
rived at the river Belen in Veragua on their re 
turn, having spent a month in advancing thirty 
, leagues along the Coast of Contradiction. Ships 

I and men were in a deplorable condition, and the 

good priest on whom they relied for the consola- 
tions of religion had died on the passage. *' On 
the Feast of the Epiphany I arrived at Veragua, 
unable to proceed farther. There our Lord 
enabled me to find a river and a good harbor. I 
entered it with difficulty, and next day the storm 
began again. If I had been outside then, I could 
never have crossed the bar." '^ From that time 

*Navaircte, " Cuarto y dltimo viage de Colon." 



Christopher Columbus. 195 

incessant heavy rain kept Columbus a prisoner 
till the middle of February, but the more robust 
Don Bartholomew led off a detachment to ex- 
plore the country. An Indian village lay near 
the place of their landing, and the natives assem- 
bled to attack the invaders, but were easily paci- 
fied. Their cacique, Quibian, dwelt on the banks 
of the river, and received the adelantado gra- 
ciously, but adroitly guided him to the gold-mines 
of another cacique, with whom he was at war. 
They were more distant and less productive than 
his own. The country seemed paved with gold. 
Columbus wrote to the sovereigns that in two 
days in Veragua he had seen more signs of gold 
than in four years in Hispaniola. He determined, 
therefore, to make a settlement at the mouth of 
the river Belen, and to leave his brother in com- 
mand with one ship, the Galician, while he sailed 
with the other three to obtain supplies and re- 
inforcements from Hispaniola. 

The water had sunk in the river, and it was 
impossible to extricate the vessels for some time. 
When Quibian saw that the Spanish intended to 
remain, he instigated his countrymen to gather in 
great force, and drive them into the sea. Being 
a clever politician, he informed the adelantado 
that he was mustering his forces to make war 
upon a hostile tribe, and he was believed till the 
gallant and most faithful Diego Mendez, the chief 
notary, felt his suspicions aroused, and resolved 



196 Christopher Columbus, 

at all hazards to himself to settle the doubt. This 
excellent man was devotedly attached to the ad- 
miral, and seems to have been convinced that a 
special Providence protected those who served 
him loyally. He acted on several occasions as if 
he bore a charmed life, and only the goodness of 
his motives saves him from the reproach of crimi- 
nal rashness. To sound the intentions of the In- 
dians, he set off in a canoe all alone to watch their 
movements, and walked coolly into the midst of 
many thousand warriors assembled under arms. 
He offered to accompany them in their campaign, 
but they evidently did not like the suggestion. 
He retired unscathed. Then he persuaded an- 
other rash cavalier to accompany him, and pene- 
trated to the palace of Quibian. A 3^oung Indian 
struck him in the face, but again he escaped with 
his life. He had proved beyond dispute that a 
conspiracy was being formed for the extirmina- 
tion of the Spaniards. 

The adelantado was an adept in capturing ca- 
ciques, and he easily secured the persons of Qui- 
bian and all his near relations without bloodshed, 
but Juan Sanchez, the pilot, to whom he intrusted 
the prisoner, in his boastful self-reliance, allowed 
the wily savage to escape. He plunged overboard 
in his chains, and swam ashore. As important 
hostages still remained in his power, Columbus 
thought that it was safe to leave the settlement, 
and, assisted by fresh floods, he succeeded, though 



Christopher Cohunhiis, I97 

with great difficulty, in moving his three ships 
over the sand-banks at the entrance of the harbor. 
They had to wait for a favorable wind. Mean- 
time Quibian was at work. The abduction of his 
household, instead of intimidating him, had driven 
him wild. A furious attack was made on the 
feeble fortification, and repulsed, but only for a 
time, by prodigies of valor. A boat was sent off 
by Columbus to get water, and all the crew were 
murdered except one, who escaped by divmg. 
Columbus, not daring to risk his sole remammg 
boat in the wild surf, gladly accepted the offer 
of a brave man, Pedro de Ledesma, to swim 
ashore and bring back news. He succeeded in 
going and returning, and the news he brought 
determined Columbus to break up the settlement, 
leaving the Galiciaii to its fate, and to take all his 
men a^way from that inhospitable shore, though 
his ships by this time were little better than 
wrecks, and the choice seemed to lie between 
certain death on shore and almost certain death 

at sea. r ^i <- 

It was a time of mental agony for the great 

commander. Irving says: 

'' Every hour increased the anxiety of Colum- 
bus for his brother, for his people, and for his 
ships, yet each succeeding hour only appeared to 
render the impending dangers more imminent. 
Days of constant perturbation, and nights of 
sleepless anguish, preyed upon a constitution 



198 Christopher Cohimbzis, 

broken by age and hardships. Amidst the acute 
maladies of his body and the fever of his mind, he 
appears to have been visited by partial delirium. 
The workings of his diseased imagination, at such 
times, he was prone to consider as something 
mysterious and supernatural. In a letter to the 
sovereigns he gives a solemn account of a kind 
of vision which comforted him when full of des- 
pondency and tossing on a couch of pain." (" Life 
of Columbus," bk. xv. ch. ix.) 

If visions are impossible, this was no vision. 
Comfort so opportune and so efficacious may 
easily have been something of a higher order 
than Irving, in his ** impatience of the supernatu- 
ral," sr.pposes. The change produced could not 
have been more complete if the voice which Co- 
lumbus heard was really, as he himself believed, 
a message from God, and not, as a Protestant his- 
torian is bound to suppose, the raving of a dis- 
ordered mind. Between sleeping and waking, he 
received a solemn admonition, beginning with the 
words, '' O foolish and slow of heart ! " He was 
then reminded of the mercies God had shown 
him, and finally encouraged with the words," Fear 
not! have confidence! all these tribulations are 
written on marble, and not without cause." 

Thus consoled, Columbus took heart, and felt 
that God would still be with him. He had not 
sailed many leagues before another caravel had 
to be abandoned. All the men were now crowded 



Christopher Columbus. I99 

f wn vessels Working day and night at the 
p^mp 1 y retched a group of islands on tl^ 
co^st of Cuba. Here, in a storm, the two vessel 
we" further disabled by a violent coUis^on, but 
Co umbus obtained some provisions, and resum d 
hfs course for Hispaniola. He was forced how- 
e ^r to run both ships aground in a beauUful bay 
on th coast of Jamaica. It seemed to h.m mira- 
culous that, being so full of water, they had not 
foundered. The only thing now was to m^U the 
best of the situation, to entrench themselves m 
£[r wooden fortress, and if possible, to conc^^- 
ate the natives. Diego Mendez won the affec- 
tions of the caciques far and near, and established 
a regular systen. of supplies at fixed pnces. He 
also'purchased an excellent canoe. 

How was Ovando to be miormed of the itu 
ation> Columbus put this question to Diego 
MeTdez and received the answer he expected. 
He vvoud try with the help of God to pass those 
forty °ea-ues in his canoe. " I have only one life, 
Ind I am ready to risk it in your service and for 
he good of all here; because I trust ■" o«r Lord 
that'knowing my good i.^ention, '- - ^^ liver 
me as he has done many times.' It was then ar 
Tng^d t^.at the attempt should be made, though 
ne t' er Columbus nor Mendez thought light y of 
the danger. If the attempt prospered Mendez 
was to |o from Hispaniola to Spain, bearing a 
Tetter to'the sovereigns. He at once set to work 



200 Christopher Cohwibus, 

to make his frail bark, as far as his skill went, fit 
for ocean travelling ; and, taking an affectionate 
farewell, set out with six Indians and a Spaniard. 
He coasted eastward, narrowly escaped being 
murdered by the Indians just before leaving Ja- 
maica, and returned very shortly without his com- 
panions to offer to make a fresh start if an escort 
was sent along the island to see him safe off to sea. 
The minds of the Spaniards had by this time be- 
come familiar with the project, which had lost in 
consequence some portion of its terror, so that for 
his second attempt Diego Mendez was accompa- 
nied by Bartholomew Fieschi, a man almost as 
loyal and devoted as himself, «nd by six other 
Spaniards and twenty Indians, who were equally 
distributed in two large canoes. The adelantado 
with an armed force escorted them to the eastern 
extremity of Jamaica, where they waited for set- 
tled weather. 

The sufferings of the voyage under the burning 
sun were terrible. The water soon had to be 
doled out to all in such scanty measure that it 
was more like mockery to their thirst. By what 
seemed a mere accident, they sighted in the 
night-time a little, low-lj^ing island, which they 
had despaired of finding. Some of the Indians 
had already died of thirst at sea; others died 
upon the island from their intemperate draughts 
of rain-water collected in the crevices of the 
rocks. Finally, Mendez and Fieschi reached His- 



Christopher Columbus, 201 

paniola. Fieschi wanted to return to Columbus 
at once ; but neither for love nor money would 
Spaniard or Indian go with him, and he could not 
manage the canoe alone. Mendez made his wa}^ 
all by himself, through matted forests full of hos- 
tile Indians to Xaragua,where Ovando was crush- 
ing with relentless cruelty what there is reason to 
think was only an imaginary rebellion. He told 
his sad story to Ovando, who seemed much af- 
fected, but left Columbus eight long months to 
himself, and then sent Escobar, one of Roldan's 
rebels, just to look at the Spanish settlement from 
his ship without landing, and to cause to be con- 
veyed in a little boat to the admiral, with many 
courteous expressions of good-will, a barrel of wine 
and a side of bacon ! The feelings of Columbus 
may be in part imagined. Again we need not ac- 
cuse Ovando of actually seeking the destruction 
of his rival ; but it is beyond all doubt that he 
preferred that Columbus should remain a little 
longer where he was, especially as it appeared by 
the account of Mendez that provisions could be 
obtained from the Indians of Jamaica. 

During those eight months of cruel abandon- 
ment, when from the failure of Fieschi to return, 
as he had promised, it seemed only too evident 
that the canoes had not reached Hispaniola — for 
that Ovando should not try to help them could 
scarcely have been surmised — men not saints, and 
not resiofned like their chief to the will of Heaven, 



202 Christopher Cohimbtis, 

deprived, moreover, of the consolations of religion 
were sure to grow desperate. Francisco and Diego 
Porras had been in a manner forced upon Colum- 
bus at the last moment. At their own urgent 
entreaty, backed by the intercession of their 
brother-in-law, a man in high office, they had 
been permitted, as a personal favor, to join the 
expedition, and had received many marks of kind- 
ness from the admiral. Now in his affliction they 
deserted him. They studiously fomented the in- 
creasing discontent, affirming that Columbus, if 
the truth were known, was not very anxious to 
leave his present place of exile, that Ovando had 
already refused to have him in Hispaniola, and 
that their best chance of being received there was 
to go without him. They represented that it was 
quite fair to abandon him, since in reality he had 
first abandoned them ; for Mendez and Fieschi 
had been sent not to demand help from Ovando, 
but to see to the interests of Columbus in Spain. 

Francisco de Porras burst into the cabin where 
Columbus was ill in bed, and in a torrent of re- 
proaches gave him the option of embarking at 
once or remaining to perish. It was in vain that 
Columbus tried to show him the absurdity of his 
suspicions, for he did not wish to be undeceived, 
and only sought a pretext for saying that the 
admiral would not listen to reason. He rushed 
out shouting, '' To Castile ! to Castile ! follow 
who will!" Many misguided men joined him at 



Christopher Columbus, 203 

once. Columbus sprang out of bed to endeavor 
to appease the fury of the mutineers, but Don 
Bartholomew could with difficulty be kept from 
using his lance by way of argument. Porras, fol- 
lowed by most of the able-bodied men, coasted 
eastward in ten canoes, intending to follow in the 
track of Mendez. Wherever they landed they 
oppressed and outraged the natives, and told 
them malignant falsehoods about Columbus, to 
incite them to attack the invalid garrison. From 
the eastern point of the island, after waiting for 
calm weather, they pushed off to sea; but the 
wind rose immediately and they turned back, 
lightening their load by throwing the Indians 
overboard. They made a second and third at- 
tempt equally unprospered of Heaven, and then, 
cursing their ill-fortune, turned professional ma- 
rauders, and passed, Irving says, '' like a pestilence 
through the island." 

Soon, to add to the distress of the admiral, the 
Indians grew careless, and provisions no longer 
arrived according to stipulation. The story of 
the prediction of the eclipse, by which he worked 
upon the fears of the natives, is well known. M. 
Roselly de Lorgues '^ reminds us that, while much 
of the apparent disingenuousness and irreverence 
of what seems at first sight a mock appeal to 
Heaven would in any case depend upon the 

*" Christophe Colomb," bk. ii. p. 298, seq. 



204 Christopher'' Cohirnhus. 

actual words employed by Columbus, no one for 
a moment pretends that we are in possession of 
his actual words ; and that there would be no dis- 
ingenuousness or irreverence at all, if (which we 
can no more deny than affirm) God himself had 
inspired either the first idea or the opportune re- 
membrance of the precise time of the eclipse. 
Those who feel sure that Columbus a short time 
before mistook a flight of delirious fancy for a 
vision sent by God might save him from the 
charge of impiety by consistently supposing that 
on this occasion he mistook a '' happy thought " 
for a divine inspiration. Perhaps the poor natives 
were under no great delusion after all when they 
drew the inference that the prayers of the perse- 
cuted just man were powerful with his God. 

Some of those who had remained with Colum- 
bus had only been deterred by weak health from 
going with Porras, and their loyalty vanished 
when their strength returned. Just when a new 
secession had been planned, Escobar's ship was 
seen approaching. The joy of all was extreme, 
but was soon changed into bitter complaint. Es- 
cobar departed as he came, without taking one 
exile with him, alleging that Ovando had no ship 
large enough for them all, but offering to be the 
bearer of any dispatches which the admiral could 
make up at a moment's notice. The men in the 
boat had orders to answer no questions, and the 
whole transaction was enveloped in myster3\ 



Christopher Columbus, 205 

Porras even contrived to make some of his men 
believe that Columbus had conjured up a phantom 
ship. It must have been a sore trial, but he kept 
up the appearance of hope. He made the most 
of the reason alleged. It was better not to divide 
their forces. They would not have much longer to 
wait, and then all could depart together. Porras, 
feeling sure that he had sinned beyond forgive- 
ness, was resolved that those with him should 
share his desperation, and moved nearer to the 
admiral to arrange an attack. He received over- 
tures of peace, with the offer of an amnesty to all 
on condition of immediate surrender. He would 
not permit the envoys to deliver their message to 
his men, but went out to meet them and made 
such haughty demands that no reconciliation 
could be attempted. Then the adelantado 
started with fifty men to offer an ultimatum. 
This little troop was made up of recent invalids, 
high-spirited, but still feeble ; and the rebels 
were both more numerous and more robust. 
Negotiation was soon abandoned. Porras with 
his men made a fierce onslaught, but they were 
beaten back by the noble adelantado, who with 
his own hands secured their chief. It is sad to 
find Pedro de Ledesma in such company. He 
was left for dead on the field, covered with 
wounds, but they were not mortal. He met his 
death years afterwards by assassination in Seville. 
When Porras was taken prisoner, the rest ran 



2o6 Christopher Columbus, 

away. They soon sent a petition for mercy to 
the admiral, and were received with open arms ; 
but to prevent any disastrous collision, naturally 
to be feared among men who had so lately been 
bitter foes, they were sent off under a trusty 
leader to explore the island till the ships should 
arrive. 

When Ovando saw that longer delay would 
bring punishment upon himself, he at last permit- 
ted two ships to be sent. It took Columbus a 
full month to sail across the channel which Diego 
Mendez had crossed with his canoes in four days. 
Finally, on the 13th of August, 1504, six weeks 
after leaving that strange abode — two battered 
ships forced ashore in a storm and deeply bedded 
in the sand — in which he had been kept a prisoner 
for so many months, Columbus arrived at St. 
Domingo. 

It is only due to the memory of Columbus that 
a few words should be said about the administra- 
tion of Ovando. Under him the repartiniientos 
begun by Bobadilla attained maturity by royal 
sanction. He had represented that idleness was 
ruinous to the Indians, and was the chief obstacle 
to their embracing the faith. A letter from the 
sovereigns empowered him to exact forced labor, 
but ordered him to see that the natives were pro- 
perly treated and duly remunerated. This letter 
formed the basis of a system of organized oppres- 
sion which defies description. *' Twelve years 



Christopher Columbus. 207 

had not elapsed since the discovery of the island, 
and several hundred thousand of its inhabitants 
had perished, miserable victims to the grasping 
avarice of the white men." "^ 

The fate of Anacaona, the generous friend of 
the white men, shows the detestable cruelty of 
the Spaniards when Columbus no longer crossed 
their path. 

*' As the Indians had entertained their guests 
with various national games, Ovando invited them 
in return to witness certain games of his country. 
. . . The cavalry and foot soldiers had their se- 
cret instructions. ... At the appointed time the 
square was crowded with the Indians, waiting to 
see this military spectacle. . . . The caciques 
were assembled in the house of Ovando, which 
looked upon the square. None were armed ; an 
unreserved confidence prevailed among them, to- 
tally incompatible with the dark treachery of 
which they were accused. . . . Ovando left his 
game (of quoits) . . . and gave the fatal signal. 
,. . . The house in which Anacaona and all the 
principal caciques were assembled was surround- 
ed by soldiery . . . and no one was permitted to 
escape. They entered, and seizing upon the 
caciques, bound them to the posts which support- 
ed the roof. Anacaona was led forth a prisoner. 
The unhappy caciques were then put to horrible 
tortures, until some of them, in the extremity of 

* Irvine's " Life of Columbus," bk. xvii. c. i. 



2o8 Christopher Columbus, 

anguish, were made to accuse their queen and 
themselves of the plot with which they were 
charged. When this cruel mockery of judicial 
form had been executed, instead of preserving 
them for after examination, fire was set to the 
house, and all the caciques perished miserably in 
the flames. While these barbarities were prac- 
tised upon the chieftains, a horrible massacre took 
place among the populace. . . . No mercy was 
shown to age or sex ; it was a savage and indis- 
criminate butchery. ... As to the Princess Ana- 
caona, she was carried in chains to San Domingo. 
The mockery of a trial was given her, in which 
she was found guilty on the confessions which 
had been wrung by tortures from her subjects 
and on the testimony of their butchers, and she 
was ignominiously hanged in the presence of the 
people whom she had so long and so signally 
befriended" (Irving's ''Life of Columbus," bk. 
xvii. c. ii.) 

Isabella on her death-bed received the news of 
these atrocities, and extorted an insincere pro- 
mise from Ferdinand to recall Ovando at once. 

Ovando pretended great joy at seeing Colum- 
bus, but this was a necessary condescension to 
popular opinion. His real sentiments may be 
gathered from his conduct. He began by setting 
Porras at liberty, and threatening to punish the 
faithful defenders of the admiral for having slain 
some of the rebels. 



Christopher Colunibtis, 209 

On the 7th of November, 1504, Columbus 
reached Spain in a very feeble state of health. 
He sought repose in Seville, and tried by writing 
letters to procure payment of the arrears of 
revenue ; but Isabella was on her death-bed, and 
it soon became apparent that without personal 
application at court he had not the slightest 
chance of recovering his rights. Three weeks 
after his arrival Isabella died. 

'' A memorial for thee, my dear son Diego, of 
what is at present to be done. The principal 
thing is to commend affectionately, and with great 
devotion, the soul of the queen, our sovereign, to 
God. Her life was always Catholic and holy, and 
prompt to all things in his holy service ; for this 
reason we may rest assured that she is received 
into his glory, and beyond the cares of this rough 
and weary world. The next thing is to watch 
and labor in all matters for the service of our 
sovereign the king, and to endeavor to alleviate 
his grief. His majesty is the head of Christen- 
dom. Remember the proverb which says when 
the head suffers all the members suffer. There- 
fore all good Christians should pray for his health 
and long life ; and we, who are in his employ, 
ought more than others to do this with all study 
and diligence " (Irving's '' Life of Columbus," bk. 

xviii. c. ii.) 

Ferdinand was unworthy of the loyal service 
of Columbus, utterly unworthy of the faithful 



2IO CJmstopher Columbus. 

love of the saintly Isabella. In Isabella's grave 
lay buried the earthly hopes of her great admiral. 
From her death to his own, eighteen months 
later, he was working hard lor his son's sake, to 
obtain from the ungrateful king his money over- 
due and his privileges confirmed upon oath again 
and again. Ferdinand saw that his troublesome 
suit would soon be stilled in death, and so he put 
him off with fair words and waited for the end. 

^' A little more delay, a little more disappoint- 
ment, and a little more infliction of ingratitude, 
and this loyal and generous heart would cease to 
beat; he should then be delivered from the just 
claims of a w^ell-tried servant, who, in ceasing to 
be useful, was considered by him to have become 
importunate " (Irving's * Life of Columbus,' bk. 
xviii. c. iii.) 

Columbus died at Valladolid on the feast of the 
Ascension, 20th of May, 1506. Don Bartholomew 
was not by his side. He had gone to represent 
his sick brother on occasion of the landing of the 
youthful sovereigns of Castile, Philip and Joanna, 
and he never saw Christopher again on earth. 

The will of Columbus,^ from which an extract 

* Irving speaks of the will of Columbus as if it had been 
drawn up in the last illness, but it was only the le^al ratification 
which immediately preceded his death. The will itself dated 
from 1502. This is a point of some importance in the contro- 
versy about Beatrix Enriquez. The remorse of conscience which 
he felt on her account was not " compunction awakened in his 
dying moments," nor need we seek for any other motive than the 
estrangement from his wife to which his roving life had con- 



Chj'isiopher Columbus, 211 

has already been given, is in its main provisions 
identical with the deed of majoratus executed in 
1498, breathing throughout the same zeal for 
the glory of God, the same greatness of purpose^ 
the same eagerness to satisfy all just claims, the 
same Christian generosity, and the same central 
idea, unretracted in death — the conquest of Jeru- 
salem. 

In the room of an inn in Valladolid Columbus 
prepared for death. The chains, his earthly re- 
ward, were hanging on the wall. Not one of the 
grandees of Spain came to see him, or cared to 
enquire about him. His two sons were with him, 
and a few of his old officers, Bartholomew Fieschi 
among them. The Franciscan Fathers attended 
him. He wore his Franciscan habit as a tertiary. 
Isabella had done the same on her deathbed. He 
was in possession of all his faculties to the last. 
He did not bequeath his chains to his heir with 
demand of vengeance, but he wished to have 
them buried with him. Bobadilla carried to his 
grave great heaps of gold, the wages of his sin. 
Columbus took with him the symbol of an earthly 
king's ingratitude. Those chains were very dear 
to him, for he knew how faithfully he had served 
King Ferdinand, and there is no surer passport 
to the kingdom of heaven than penance joined to 

demned him. Any graver guilt of husband or of wife would not 
have passed unnoted when so many slanderous tongues were 
busy. 



212 Clu^istopher Cohimhis. 

innocence, virtue chastised, persecution for jiis- 
:jice' sake. He confessed his sins, received viati- 
cum, and was anointed at his own request. His 
last words, according to Don Fernando, were : 
"Lord, into thy hands I commend my spirit." 
We cannot doubt that our Lord hastened to re- 
ceive into his rest that faithful servant, who 
through good report and ill report had labored 
for his greater glory, to bring the ends of the 
earth within the hearing of his name, and to en- 
able Christians to rekindle the fervor of faith on 
the very spot where the precious blood was shed ; 
that faithful servant who, like his master had 
many bitter enemies enviously seeking his de- 
struction, and forgave them all ; who, probably 
enough, died like his master, of a broken heart, 
broken by the same thought of agony — the ruin of 
souls which he so longed to save. 

That Columbus was a man of blameless life, a 
fervent Christian, careful to keep his soul in the 
state of grace, and habitually acting upon very 
high motives of the service of God and the in- 
crease of the Church — in other words, that he 
was a saint in a less strict sense of the word, 
seems to be fairly certified by the careful re- 
searches of Count Roselly de Lorgues. Whether 
he was a saint in that highest sense which is 
meant when we speak of formal canonization must 
ultimately depend upon the intervention of Hea- 
ven. Pending the proof of miracles wrought 



Christopher Columbus, 213 

after his death and by his direct intercession,"^" 
and pending also any declaration of the Church in 
his cause, we can only say that the great work 
given him to do, his own deep sense of a divine 
vocation, his life worthy of that high commis- 
sion, his humble readiness to ascribe all his 
achievements to the helping hand of God, his 
edifying forgiveness of the most malignant out- 
rages, his childlike trust in the protection of 
Heaven, repaid, as we have seen, by the standing 
miracle of a special Providence visibly exerted in 
his behalf, and carrying him safely through a 
thousand dangers in long tempestuous voyages, 
with ships scarcely seaworthy at their best, but 
still, with gaping seams, and teredo-pierced planks, 
ever keeping above water till land was reached 
and then falling to pieces on shore ; his wonder- 
ful predictions, the visions in which he himself put 
faith ; above all, his surpassing tribulations pa- 
tiently endured, and his death in deep obscurity 
and contempt, without one vindictive word, cer- 
tainly favor the idea that Christopher Columbus 
is a saint in the strictest sense of the word. 

His body was taken by the Franciscans to their 
convent vault in Valladolid. They alone took 
any thought about him. A history of the city, 
the ** Chronicle of Valladolid," which makes men- 



* Of miracles indirectly attributable to him, worked by means 
of a cross which he erected in Hispaniola, there is abundant evi- 
dence. 



2 14 Christopher Colu7nbus, 

tion of minute events of local interest, takes no 
notice of his death. Peter Martyr, the renowned 
historian, who had once been proud to call him- 
self his friend, does not consider his death a mat- 
ter for history. Years afterwards he was spoken 
of in a book as being still alive. Ferdinand, 
writing to Diego a fortnight after his father's 
death, had not a word of decent condolence to 
offer, though seven years later he caused the 
body to be removed to Seville and there interred 
with high honor. The epitaph upon his tomb 
was brief but full of meaning : 

"POR CASTILLA Y FOR LEON 
NUEVO MUNDO HALLO COLON." 

In 1536 the body was translated to San Domin- 
go, and in 1796 to Havana, where it now rests, 
and by its side are the mortal remains of the 
brave adelantado. 



In conclusion, we may add one or two remarks 
by way of correction. In the first place, it is 
stated in the third chapter, on the authority of 
Robertson, that Las Casas recommended as the 
lesser of two evils the importation of negroes in- 
to the West Indies. This assertion, accepted by 
Irving and by many other winters both before 
and since Robertson, rests upon the sole testimo- 
ny of Herrera, who, though generally trust- 
worthy, was certainl}^ prejudiced against Las 



Christopher Cohimbus, 215 

Casas. It receives no corroboration from the writ- 
ings of Las Casas himself, or his contemporaries. 
Consult, '' Apologie de Barthelemy de Las Casas 
eveque de Chiapa par le citojen Gregoire (Count 
Louis Gregoire, Bishop of Blois), lu a I'lnstitut 
National le 2 Floreal an 8 (1800). 

In the second place, two documents which have 
just come to light in Spain, the one discovered 
by Father Raymond Buldu at Valencia, the 
other by Father Marcellino da Civezza in the libra- 
ry of the Royal Academy of History in Madrid, 
seems to supply all that can be required of direct 
testimony to the marriage of Beatrix Enriquez. 
Sqq L'UniverSy nth of January, 1877. 



THE END. 



i 



\< 



'^ 



>p ^x. 









r> dr 



^. ^'^• 



.^ -^ 



.0^ 






<i^ ■''h 



.<}■• 



*^. 












% 



.0 



n^ 



\.>-^ 



o 



.■<■■ 










^-^r^ 


v^"* 


_;■ 






* 


y 




C 


% 




.^' 


4>^ 










^^■^ 


% 









.0 o 



.4"' 






y^ 



>\> 



V t/> 



^^ 



^^ V^ 



A^ ^^. 









v^ O 



^nO=- ^- 



.-N- 



^^,<^' - 
.s k \ 



'%^ 






^J. <- 



:^ ^^. 



^ ^x. 



f c> 



.^' ■:■. 



*-.# 









,d' 



%4> 



X 

i<. 



^^\ 






.5 -n^ 



^\- 






:^ V 



Oo 






■•v 



# 'V 



.^^ -^^ 



A' 






7 > 



-^/^«>^^\^ 



>^^ 



V '-^. 



\^ 



\ ' « >^ <?>. 



Ov . N 



"^,^ vV 



^ V 






,0 o 



'/ 



/' ^^^^'r.%_ ^^. '■ 



^^ 






\r'inp;M: 



